US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Wednesday announced an ambitious plan to expand the US Navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft, to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.
The Pentagon chief said a sweeping review of US naval power dubbed “Future Forward” had laid out a “game-changer” plan that would expand the US sea fleet to more than 355 ships, from 293.
The plan, which would require adding tens of billions of dollars to the US Navy’s budget until 2045, is aimed at maintaining superiority over Chinese naval forces, seen as the primary threat to the US.
Photo: AFP
“The future fleet will be more balanced in its ability to deliver lethal effects from the air, from the sea and from under the sea,” Esper said in a speech at Rand Corp in California.
The plan is for a fleet of ships more able to survive a high-intensity conflict, to project US power and presence, and to deliver precision strikes at very long distances. An example is a new guided missile frigate program, producing ships with “increased lethality, survivability, capability and capacity to conduct distributed warfare,” he added.
“These efforts are the next step in realizing our future fleet, one in which unmanned systems perform a variety of war-fighting functions, from delivering lethal fire and laying mines, to conducting resupply or surveilling the enemy,” Esper said. “This will be a major shift in how we will conduct naval warfare in the years and decades to come.”
Esper said that China is the top US security threat and that the Indo-Pacific region is the “priority theater” for the US military.
“Not only is this [Indo-Pacific] region important because it is a hub of global trade and commerce, it is also the epicenter of great power competition with China,” Esper said.
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