This issue focuses on naval shipbuilding. Last summer, as the American Sea Power Project was wrapping up, we realized that perhaps more urgent than the need for a new naval strategy was the need for more capacity and greater discipline in shipbuilding design and budgeting. Even though the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations each called for a bigger Navy, and study after study supported a fleet of 350 ships or more, the Navy has been stuck between 290 and 300 battle force ships for the past decade. The Coast Guard story is similar. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy is launching new ships like “dropping dumplings in the soup.” If this were an easy problem, it would have been fixed by now. Instead, it is a complex set of problems that interlock and create second- and third-order effects.
We are grateful to the authors who answered the call to write. Each has expertise and experience, and our hope is that by presenting their ideas together in one issue, the new administration, Congress, and industry will glean important ideas and lessons.
Our feature coverage starts with “A Path to the Navy Force Structure the Nation Needs” by retired Navy Vice Admiral Tom Moore, a former Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command. Moore points out that the Navy has been unable to effectively manage new construction, ship retirements, and requirements creep. Martin Bollinger (no relation to Bollinger Shipyards) provides the Wall Street perspective in “Shareholder Interests Are at Odds with Navy Needs.” Recalling lessons from the Royal Navy early last century, retired Navy Captain Brent Sadler writes “The Nation Needs a Shipbuilding Revolution.” Retired Navy Captain Bob Schwaneke addresses the Combat Logistics Force with “Build the T-AOL Right." Retired Marine Colonel T. X. Hammes and retired Navy Captain Robbie Harris suggest a solution to the Navy’s need for more hulls and more missiles in “Warship Weapons for Merchant Ship Platforms.” Former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson’s “The Future Is Here: Thoughts on Warship Design and Acquisition” envisions a process that designs, buys, upgrades, and maintains warships by harmonizing software, combat systems, and hull, mechanical, and electrical components.
Three commentaries also address shipbuilding. Our go-to expert on aircraft carriers, retired Navy Captain Tal Manvel, warns “Don’t Delay the Next Dual Buy Of Carriers” because delaying the purchase of CVN-82/83 will undo many of the benefits of the CVN-80/81 dual buy. Navy Lieutenant Commander Matt Hipple’s “Parable of the Shipbuilding Plan” points out that the Navy is awash in alarming studies and now is the time to act rather than commission new ones. In “Warship Construction Is A Critical And Urgent Challenge,” retired Navy Vice Admiral Phil Balisle shares key things the Navy must do and must not do as it designs and builds the next family of surface combatants. Lessons from the Spruance-class destroyers of the 1970s and ’80s fall in the “must-do” category.
Additional shipbuilding articles will follow in upcoming issues, including some that address construction of Coast Guard, amphibious, and uncrewed ships. Foreign practices also will be included. As always, we encourage readers to engage by writing additional articles and letters for Comment & Discussion. Only through concerted effort, consistent attention, and disciplined requirements, design, and budgeting processes will the Sea Services achieve the force structure needed to meet global demands.