After studying the Navy’s Request for Information (RFI) on industry’s frigate designs, “I wouldn’t say the RFI repudiates the LCS approach, because the idea of having a smaller, less-expensive, shallow-draft, fast ship makes sense,” said retired commander Bryan Clark, now with the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments. 

“Today, there are some competing claims, but…it’s an orderly process and no one is building islands, drilling in someone else’s potential EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone), or harassing each other’s vessels,” said Bryan Clark, 

In response to a question from subcommittee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Bryan Clark, a retired submariner and analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said he thought the RFI was too vague and questioned whether the U.S. Navy actually knows what it wants.

Bryan Clark, naval analyst with Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said, based on photos of the damage published by the Navy, the costs to repair the ship would easily top the $250 million of the Cole repairs, and could even double that figure.

Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments senior fellow Bryan Clark said during the hearing that he worried the Navy had begun this process with too many details left undecided, and said that the Navy should be able to better determine what it wants without first requiring industry feedback.

“It helps address the current readiness shortfall in the Fleet,” said Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments.