Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, advocates for adding the local air defense requirement. He led one of three congressionally mandated alternative fleet architecture studies recently completed by the Navy, and Clark's report advocates for building guided missile frigates. He said the proliferation of anti-ship cruise missiles and the advances in cruise missile technology necessitate the frigate defending other friendly ships from such threats. "Those things drive you to having to maybe make the air defense mission a more explicit consideration in the design of the ship," Clark told ITN April 26. If the frigates are able to protect convoys and other ships from air threats, according to Clark, the Navy's guided missile destroyers could be freed up to focus on ballistic missile defense and other missions.
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