"New challenge for the Pentagon": will the US Navy have enough 500 ships and submarines to contain Russia and China?

By 2045, the US Navy should increase the number of ships and submarines in service to 500 units.

This was stated by the head of the Pentagon Mark Esper during a speech at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

This rearmament will be achieved within the framework of the Naval Update Program - Battle Force 2045 ("Combat forces - 2045").

“The Battle Force 2045 program calls for a more balanced Navy, with over 500 ships, both manned and unmanned.

Moreover, the mark of 355 traditional warships will be reached by 2035, by which the PRC plans to carry out a complete modernization of its armed forces.

And, most importantly, we now have a solid plan for reaching 355 or more ships in an era of budgetary constraints, ”Esper explained.

According to the head of the American defense department, such a build-up of the fleet is necessary in order to resist China and Russia.

“The challenge we face today is clear: Nearly equal rivals, namely China and Russia, are rapidly modernizing their armed forces in an effort to undermine our long-standing advantages and rebalance in their favor ... Beijing and Moscow seek to undermine our military advantages with precision long-range weapons, access and maneuver restriction and deny systems and other asymmetric means designed to counter our strengths, ”said Esper.

List of ships

To achieve the designated goal in the framework of the Battle Force 2045 program, said Mark Esper, the US Navy first of all needs to increase the number of multipurpose submarines in service, bringing their number to 70-80 units (now there are 51).

"At least

As soon as possible, the Navy needs to start building three Virginia-class submarines each year, the head of the Pentagon stressed.

In addition, the expansion of the submarine fleet will be achieved through the modernization and extension of the service life of seven Los Angeles class boats.

In addition, Esper called for large investments in the development of a new type of advanced multipurpose submarine, now known as the SSN (X).

• Pentagon chief Mark Esper

• Reuters

• © Erin Scott

Esper also noted that the United States will continue to use nuclear-powered aircraft-carrying cruisers, which continue to serve as an important deterrent at sea.

At the same time, he added, it is necessary to build light aircraft carriers that will expand the permanent American military presence.

According to him, future light aircraft carriers may be created on the basis of the America-class universal amphibious assault ships.

“We expect more research will be needed to determine the proper composition of the larger and smaller carrier fleets, but it will take 8 to 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to wage a large-scale conflict and maintain our global presence, assisted by up to six light aircraft carriers,” Esper said in his remarks.

In addition, according to this program, the US Navy will receive from 140 to 240 unmanned or partially manned surface and submarine ships.

According to Esper, they will be engaged in laying deep-sea mines, launching missile strikes, conducting surveillance and acting as decoy targets.

The head of the Pentagon, as an example, cited a prototype of the unmanned trimaran Sea Hunter, which recently took part in tests for interaction with the destroyer USS Russel.

The fleet of ships with a smaller displacement - frigates - will also be increased.

Instead of the current 52 units, there will be 60-70.

In turn, the number of landing ships will be increased to 50-60 units, most of which will be in the service of the reorganized US Marine Corps, Esper said.

Along with an increase in the number of warships, the updated American fleet will need new logistics vessels, the head of the US Department of Defense emphasized.

Now in the service of the Navy there are 32 such ships, but by 2045 their number will increase to 70-90 units.

In an interview with RT, military expert Alexei Leonkov recalled that back in 2017, US President Donald Trump ordered an increase in the number of ships to 355 units, which was supposed to ensure the subsequent dominance of the US Navy around the world.

“However, the fact that the number of warships in the Chinese Navy exceeded 400 units led to the fact that these plans of the American leadership had to be revised.

After numerous meetings with the command of the fleet, the Senate Committee on Armed Forces decided that the number of warships of the US Navy should grow to 450-500 units, ”the expert said.

The head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, voiced this plan, because the main challenge for the United States in the Asia-Pacific region is the Chinese fleet, which requires at least quantitative superiority from the American forces, added Alexei Leonkov.

"Review the program again"

As a result of the successful reorganization within the framework of the Battle Force 2045 program, the US Navy should become more efficient, modern and increase the ability to participate in high-tech conflicts, Mark Esper emphasized in his speech.

“It will also be a more balanced naval force, with more smaller surface combatants and ships, either unmanned or manned as needed, along with an impressive submarine fleet and modern strategic deterrent forces.

They will also be able to deliver crushing blows, balanced in four directions: from the air, from land, from the sea and from under the water, "- said the head of the Pentagon.

Esper emphasized that the concept of a high-intensity conflict involving the Navy was forgotten with the end of the Cold War, causing the US Navy to decline.

• The aircraft carrier of the United States Navy USS Ronald Reagan

• Reuters

• © Liang Yingfei / Caixin Media

Returning the power of the US Navy to the peak of the Cold War will require a return to similar levels of funding, according to the head of the Pentagon.

Thus, the implementation of the Battle Force 2045 program implies an increase in the share of the naval budget allocated to shipbuilding up to 13% - up to the level during the reign of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Such rearmament programs are necessary for the Pentagon due to the slowdown in the adoption of new types of equipment and the less widespread use of new technologies, Americanist Sergei Sudakov, corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences, said in an interview with RT.

“Gradually, the US is not becoming as high-tech as it used to be.

This is not due to the fact that they are unable to buy or create new technologies, but because of the timing of the introduction of these technologies into operation.

The United States, along with China and Russia, has these technologies, but Moscow and Beijing are able to quickly put them into operation, since they do not have so many lobbying obligations that America has, ”said the expert.

Sergey Sudakov explained that due to the presence of lobbyists in the US government procurement system, it is rather difficult to reorient production to new types of weapons if there are already existing contracts.

This means that by the time the US Navy rearmament program reaches full capacity, Russia and China will already have adequate forces and weapons in order to nullify the advantage of American forces.

“Based on the principle of sufficiency, in the next 10-15 years Russia will not only maintain parity, but will accelerate the technological gap several times.

The Russian Federation has groped for the vectors along which it is necessary to develop weapons technologies, ”the political scientist added.

In turn, Alexei Leonkov said that the appearance of the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile caused serious concern at the Pentagon and led to the need to revise the fleet's equipment programs.

“The advent of systems to restrict and deny access and maneuver have expanded opportunities along the maritime borders of both Russia and China.

Now, in order to overcome them, other approaches to the construction of the US Navy fleet are needed, ”the expert explained.

However, the rapidly developing weapon technologies and their adoption by the naval forces of the PRC and the Russian Federation will lead to the fact that the Pentagon will have to adopt a new rearmament program immediately after the completion of Battle Force 2045, Alexei Leonkov believes.

"At the turn of 2030-2035, the appearance of the Chinese Navy and the Russian Navy will force the United States to reconsider its naval building program, and the next surprises that the military-industrial complexes of these countries will present will become a new challenge for the Pentagon," the military expert concluded.