As 2016 draws to a close, Navy leadership is in possession of a great deal of blue-ribbon thinking about fleet architecture and force structure, the result of Congressional direction contained in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and elsewhere. Specifically, The Rand Corporation has submitted a study on the future of aircraft carriers, and three separate organizations (The Mitre Corporation, the Navy Staff (N81), and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)) have submitted views of appropriate future fleet architectures. The Navy is currently analyzing these products to determine the extent to which they might shape future plans and programs, as they work to “answer the mail” from the Congress.
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