Wrong Course for Navy Weapons Research

A recent report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments concluded, "Historically the U.S. military has often been slow to identify, adequately prioritize, and respond effectively to the emerging challenges likely to impose the greatest stresses on our forces in future contingencies…" The 30-year shipbuilding plan just submitted by the U.S. Navy unfortunately confirms this judgment, and recent decisions by the Senate Armed Services Committee threaten to compound the error.

There is an old saying that there are two kinds of ships: submarines and targets. Although somewhat hyperbolic when first uttered, surface ships are increasingly vulnerable to long-range ballistic missiles; by a proliferation of silent submarines being procured by even middle-range countries; and by swarms of high-speed gunboats and anti-ship cruise missiles, which are available to small countries and nonstate actors. In 2006, for example, the terrorist group Hezbollah damaged an Israeli corvette with an anti-ship missile.

The Navy shipbuilding plan perpetuates a force structure designed around increasingly vulnerable carrier strike groups that will find it necessary to operate beyond the range of their aircraft, while at the same time projecting a shortfall in the submarine force every year after fiscal 2022. Two weeks ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee defunded two advanced weapon systems — the free-electron laser and electromagnetic railgun — that are promising technologies aimed at protecting the survivability of surface ships.