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355-Ship Navy: Big Opportunity but Big Challenges
The stories are familiar to Bryan Clark, a former submarine officer who led strategic planning for the Navy as special assistant to the chief of naval operations until 2013. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The small to midsized suppliers to larger shipyards don't rely on automated processes or hundreds of workers. In some cases, specialized items "are made in an artisan sort of way," he said.
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BGOV Tools for Tracking the Defense Budget
The dashboard also includes cost estimates from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments for projects that haven’t yet been designated as major programs that require SARs.
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Navy Contemplates Results of a Future Aircraft Carrier Study - Will New, Smaller Carriers Emerge in the Future?
According to a report from Scout Warrior's Michael Fabey, the CSBA report recommends a high/low mix of traditional carriers along with new, more agile smaller carriers.
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Congress Protects U.S. Foreign Aid for Now but the Budget Wars are Just Beginning
Lastly, all the funding in the world cannot compensate for poor foreign policy choices. As Hal Brands has argued, Trump’s conduct of foreign policy to date has been a blend of incoherence and incompetence. This does not augur well for the future.
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Beyond LCS: Navy Looks to Foreign Frigates, National Security Cutter
“They are looking for something in the $700 million to $1 billion range,” said Bryan Clark, a retired but well-connected Navy strategist the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments, which itself recommended a larger frigate in a recent congressionally-chartered study. That’s as compared to $550 million for the latest Littoral Combat Ships, whose price has come down dramatically since early overruns, and about $1.8 billion for an 8,200-9,700 ton Aegis destroyer. “If it could be half the price of a destroyer, that’s probably the ideal.”
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The Day After: China Edition
Many often cited American plans for how to defeat China simply assume that nuclear war can be avoided. The most often cited of these is the Pentagon’s Air-Sea Battle (ASB) plan. A report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) gives a detailed account of how an ASB-style war with China would unfold. In the opening “blinding campaign,” the U.S. attacks China’s reconnaissance and command-and-control networks to degrade the PLA’s ability to target U.S. and allied forces. Next, the military takes the fight to the Chinese mainland, striking long-range anti-ship missile launchers. Given that this is where the anti-ship missiles are located, it is only logical that the U.S. would target land-based platforms. And to go after them, one needs to take out China’s air defense systems, command control centers, and other anti-access weapons. In short, ASB requires a total war with China. This often cited and influential document does not speak to the question about what is to follow victory.