The US Navy’s planned procurement of two new surface ship types will deliver capabilities that will enable the navy to meet the output requirements of its new surface force structure and continued global presence, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) told the Paris Naval Conference in early February.
The conference, in its fourth iteration, is co-hosted by the French Navy and IFRI (France’s international relations institute).
The US Navy’s two new ship types are: a large surface combatant, with this requirement to be met (as announced in December) by the BBG(X) / Trump-class battleships; and a small surface combatant, with this requirement to be met (as announced in November) by developing a FF(X) frigate capability drawing on the US Coast Guard’s in-service Legend-class National Security Cutter (NSC) design. The battleship and frigate will be two of a four-pillar surface force structure that also includes the in-service Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and emerging families of uncrewed surface vessels.
“You’re optimized when you have a high-low mix,” CNO Admiral Daryl Caudle told the conference.
“At the high end, you definitely want the striking power and the combat mass the airwing provides from an aircraft carrier,” said CNO. The navy’s primary surface combatants make a significant contribution here, either within a carrier strike group (CSG) or leading a surface action group (SAG). The battleships will be prominent in this context, Adm Caudle said, prospectively bringing a 25-40% firepower increase compared to the Arleigh Burkes. Such added firepower could include directed energy weaponry in the megawatt-class, CNO added.
With such firepower, Adm Caudle said, “That’s a substantial capability. That will be a capital ship of the navy.” “I can put that ship in places and surround it with some other tailored forces, and that itself will be more than adequate to handle some of the threats we need to counter globally,” he continued.
The FF(X) will add to the US Navy’s lower-end capacity. Using the NSC design will leverage the attributes of an in-service ship, with parallel implementation of lessons learned from the cancelled Constellation-class (which the new frigate class will replace). Of particular focus, Adm Caudle explained, will be delivering FF(X) in a timely manner and providing capability flexibility.
“When you put that ship to sea with modular force packages – things that can be containerized, from ordnance to uncrewed systems to towed arrays; the sky’s the limit on what you can modularize on that platform – then we can build them quickly,” Adm Caudle said.
“That high-low mix gives me the flexibility to tailor what I need globally, because what I find now is I end up having to use CSGs and amphibious strike groups (ASGs) in places where I believe I could tailor a force package and be more suited to the threat,” CNO explained.
Tailoring force packages to suit certain threats is a key tool to implement the requirements of the recently published National Security Strategy (NSS) and the forthcoming ‘US Navy Fighting Instructions’. The ‘Fighting Instructions’, CNO said, will define the navy’s approach to handling the global challenges set out in the NSS.
CNO highlighted some core NSS components, including China’s “pacing threat”; the challenges posed by Russia, North Korea, and Iran; and how to secure Atlantic and Pacific maritime approaches so direct threat vectors to US homeland defence can be countered effectively.
Reflecting NSS requirements to support US interests and counter threats globally, the ‘Fighting Instructions’ will introduce what the navy calls a ‘hedge strategy’.
“The ‘hedge strategy’ is a way to think about the employment of general-purpose forces – aircraft carriers, LSCs, SSCs, submarines, airwings, special forces, marines – and how you tailor those forces into packages that are adaptable enough and tailored enough to counter the threat without using up readiness with something that’s overmatched and not well suited for that threat,” Adm Caudle explained. “What enables us to do that are what we’ll see in the strategy are called tailored offsets – the combination of robotic and autonomous uncrewed systems that force-multiply the tailored forces .., that force-multiply those capabilities.”
“When you match that with allies and partners as a ‘hedge’, you’re able to posture globally a better way to match the threats we will face,” CNO said. “It will also allow you to – at our timing and tempo – mass the forces we need to mass, leveraging what I call the ‘differentiated value’ of the navy: our expeditionary nature; our mobility; and the fact we can be anywhere in the world in less than two weeks and bring fairly large mass … into that theatre.”
