Whither the Navy?

Since today is Naval IT Day, it's a good idea to look at the overall state of the Navy. And, if you judge by the number of ships it has, the U.S. Navy is in quite sad shape, according to Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Speaking yesterday to an American Shipbuilding Association confab in Washington, Skelton pointed out that the Navy has 283 battle force ships, "less than any time since 1916. That is right; we are a smaller Navy now than we have been for 93 years. We have fewer sailors than we have had since 1941."

The Navy, at least in terms of ships, has been withering away since 1959, when it had 923 ships, according to Ronald Reagan when he was running for president, a figure which had slipped to just over 500 in 1979.

Why? Navy ships have become too big and too expensive, according to Skelton. "The frank and honest assessment is that there are not the resources to build the ships in the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan. The money is just not there, not there by 5 to 6 billion dollars a year. And that's a lot of money."

Even when the Navy tries to build small inexpensive ships, it can't get the inexpensive part down, such as the disastrous littoral combat ship experiment, with the price tag for the first one almost doubling to $410 million from $220 million.

Skelton asked his audience, "What then should we do? Well, we would like the Navy to do what the Navy keeps saying makes the most sense: build affordable ships, which leverage on commonality with other ship programs, and build them in numbers that allow for economies of purchase and investment in infrastructure."

But based on observation over the past 20 years, believing that the Navy really will stick to its plans to build affordable ships is like believing an alcoholic who promises to have only one drink.

It's time to dust off the concept of a Navy built around hundreds, if not thousands, of light fast ships, espoused by Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski when he headed the Pentagon's now-defunct Office of Force Transformation. The plan also called for a transformation of the shipbuilding industry Skelton was speaking to. Methinks they don't want to do affordable.

I also wonder if the Navy now has more admirals than ships -- maybe it should start cutting admiral slots.