Publisher's Synopsis
This unique book reproduces six up-to-date and important government documents and reports about the current plans by the U.S. Navy for new ships and technology, including exciting concepts for large unmanned autonomous surface and undersea vessels and power systems. Contents: 1 - U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations - A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority, December 2018 * 2 - Report to Congress on the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for Fiscal Year 2020 * 3 - Naval Sea Systems Command: Expanding the Advantage 2017 * 4 - NAVSEA Campaign Plan to Expand the Advantage January 2019 * 5 - Naval Power and Energy Systems - NPES - Technology Development Roadmap 2019 * 6 - Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles, June 2019The future of the United States depends on the Navy's ability to rise to this challenge. As discussed in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, China and Russia are deploying all elements of their national power to achieve their global ambitions. In addition, our competitors have been studying our methods over the past 20 years. In many cases, they are gaining a competitive advantage and exploiting our vulnerabilities. Their activity suggests that Eurasia could once again be dominated by rivals of the United States, our allies, and partners. China and Russia seek to accumulate power at America's expense and may imperil the diplomatic, economic, and military bonds that link the United States to its allies and partners. While rarely rising to the level of conflict, Chinese and Russian actions are frequently confrontational. The PB2020 30-year shipbuilding plan includes procurement of 55 battle force ships within the FYDP. Overall inventory will reach 314 ships by FY2024 and 355 ships in FY2034. The DDG 51 class-wide extension was the principal driver of the 20-year acceleration and also provided opportunity to address higher priority readiness challenges while adjusting profiles to achieve a steady, increasing ramp to 355 (removes FY2026-2031 inventory dip).The Navy expects more out of its future fleet. Ships perform a range of functions from basic mobility to putting kinetic or electromagnetic energy on a target. These functions must be supplied by the energy sources that the ship brings with it: fuel for prime movers or reactive propellants (for traditional kinetic weapons). Electricity allows moving large amounts of energy from one place to another, controllably and quickly, making the energy resource (power generated by prime movers) extremely fungible. The trend towards electrification of warfighting capability takes advantage of, and relies upon, the fungible nature of electricity. An integrated energy system involves converting energy to the electric weapon or sensor's needs.The Navy wants to develop and procure three new types of unmanned vehicles (UVs) in FY2020 and beyond - Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles (LUSVs), Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MUSVs), and Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs). The Navy is requesting $628.8 million in FY2020 research and development funding for these three UV programs and their enabling technologies. The Navy wants to acquire these three types of UVs (which this report refers to collectively as large UVs) as part of an effort to shift the Navy to a new fleet architecture (i.e., a new combination of ships and other platforms) that is more widely distributed than the Navy's current architecture. Compared to the current fleet architecture, this more-distributed architecture is to include proportionately fewer large surface combatants (i.e., cruisers and destroyers), proportionately more small surface combatants (i.e., frigates and Littoral Combat Ships), and the addition of significant numbers of large UVs.
