CSBA in the News

It’s too early to tell how the Trump administration might view the plans. But Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said advancements in undersea warfare should continue to be a priority for the Navy.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, one of the three participants, last week unveiled one piece of that future fleet in a report called “Amphibious Operations in an Era of Precision Weapons.” 

Meanwhile, the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments, a Washington think tank, has issued a list of 10 projects that could be threatened by a continuing resolution. It lists the submarine program along with Ford-class carriers, which are designed and built exclusively at the Newport News shipyard, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.

Even if Trump's administration can find the money needed for such a dramatic expansion, new ships can't be built overnight. Reaching a fleet of the size Trump has proposed will take until the 2030s, said Bryan Clark, who served as senior aide to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert and now works as an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The US Navy (USN) and US Marine Corps (USMC) should consider developing and building 'light carrier'-type ships to support littoral operations associated with amphibious missions, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) recommended in a report published on 16 November.

Peter Haynes, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington, D.C. think tank, said training in such a complex terrain is easy on a small scale, but will present the service with challenges as it grows larger.