How does Bilden’s background compare to the nine men who’ve held the office of Navy Secretary since 1980? “I believe he has as much relevant experience for SECNAV as recent SECNAVs when they came into office.” said Bryan Clark, a retired Navy commander and a former aide to the Chief of Naval Operations. “Ray Mabus was a naval officer for one tour, but didn’t have much to do with the Navy and military after that until he became SECNAV. Donald Winter and Gordon England were engineers and defense business executives before entering office. Bilden’s experience and education in international 

The Trump Administration began work this week on its promise of an across-the-board enlargement of the U.S. military. The President-elect has thus far described his plan only in the broadest of terms, but those terms portend a sustained period of higher defense spending—something Congress has been unwilling to approve since it passed the Budget Control Act (BCA) in 2011. Chief among those who will shape the future of the American military is Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who waded into the debate last week with a strong, coherent outline that not only aims to restore the capacity of a significantly hollowed-out force, but also provides direction for how the force should evolve as it grows. There is a lot in this report, but we will restrict our comments to the larger context of the plan and its impact on American Seapower.

Although President Donald Trump has promised to grow the Navy to 350 ships, and the service has signaled a need for 355, the new administration may try to scale back the littoral combat ship program and instead buy advanced frigates that are more capable, according to Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.  “They’re not going to want to build 40 or 50 LCS-based ships,” said Clark, who is familiar with the thinking of individuals that are expected to play a role in Trump’s administration. “I think they will build as many more as they have to to keep the yards going, and then transition as soon as possible to those more robust frigates.” Congress appears to be inclined to go along with such a plan, he said.

The Navy should try and maintain OFRP to get carriers to a consistent maintenance schedule, while also mitigating carrier gaps by exploring other options, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent, nonprofit institute focused on national security strategy. “As we saw with Bush, the Navy’s carriers are suffering from the effects of repeated, prolonged deployments without adequate maintenance,” Clark said. He said the Navy could use Joint Strike Fighters on large-deck amphibious assault ships, allowing about 20 strike fighters to support operations against the Islamic State during gaps in carrier presence. OFRP can still work, even with longer maintenance periods, but that means ships will have less time in the sustainment phase after a deployment, Clark said.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says the technology is 'one of the most critical operational domains in modern warfare.' However, it concluded 'unfortunately, 'failed to keep pace' is an appropriate description of the Department of Defense's (DoD) investments in EMS warfare capabilities over the last generation.' The report, 'Winning the Airwaves: Regaining America's Dominance in the Electromagnetic Spectrum', added the technology will become as revolutionary as smartphones. 'In the same way that smartphones and the Internet are redefining how the world shares, shops, learns, and works, the development and fielding of advanced sensors and networking technologies will enable militaries to gain significant new advantages over competitors that fail to keep pace,' it says.

The Navy is paying the price for attempting to incorporate too many new technologies at once into a new class of ship. The Ford is an example of how short-lived strategic themes such as “transformation” can create long-term problems. The Ford carrier, Zumwalt destroyer, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter were all shaped in large part by services’ need to get them approved by the Bush administration, which was only interested in pursuing transformational new technologies at the time.