Modly launches 2030 Carrier Task Force

By Mallory Shelbourne / March 10, 2020 at 11:27 AM

The Navy will conduct an analysis to assess what the service's aircraft carriers will look like in 2030 and the years after, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly disclosed yesterday.

According to a press release, the six-month evaluation by the "Blue-Ribbon Future Carrier 2030 (FC-2030) Task Force" will produce a report for the Navy secretary about naval aviation and the next generation of aircraft carriers.

"Because we have four new Ford carriers under contract, we have some time to reimagine what comes next," the acting secretary said in a statement.

"Any assessment we do must consider cost, survivability, and the critical national requirement to sustain an industrial base that can produce the ships we need -- ships that will contribute to a superior, integrated naval force for the 2030s and far beyond," Modly continued.

The carrier evaluation "will be complementary to, and informed by" the assessment Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist is leading for Navy shipbuilding, according to the press release.

The study will look at both manned and unmanned platforms and seeks to understand the part next-generation aircraft carriers will play in the future fight.

"The task force will be led by an Executive Director chosen from within the Department of the Navy's Secretariat staff, and assisted on a collateral-duty basis by representatives from the Office of Naval Research and the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development," the press release reads.

The Naval Warfare Centers, the various entities within the Naval University System and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers that are authorized to participate will contribute to the carrier assessment.

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