Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Key Issues USAF depot plan LSM design FLRAA program schedule
A report released today by the Center for a New American Security argues that the aircraft carrier "is in danger of becoming too vulnerable to be relevant in future conflicts."
The report, written by Navy Capt. Henry Hendrix, "examines the life-cycle costs and utility of the aircraft carrier and recommends a new approach for American naval operations," according to a CNAS statement, which adds:
Captain Hendrix explores the evolution of the aircraft carrier and suggests a course that emphasizes greater use of unmanned aerial systems as well as submarines in combination with long-range precision strike missiles. The author analyzes the value of naval presence and the carrier's efficiency and survivability before concluding: "The carrier had its day, but continuing to adhere to 100 years of aviation tradition, even in the face of a direct challenge, signals a failure of imagination and foreshadows decline. Money is tight, and as the nautical saying goes, the enemy has found our range. It is time to change course."
A senior Defense Department official said last week that the deferral of high-complexity, high-cost maintenance procedures as a result of sequestration and the limits of a continuing resolution could set DOD back by as much as 18 months for every one month those restrictions are in effect.
The implication from John Johns, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for maintenance policy and programs, is that it could take DOD as long as nine years to fully recover from delaying work like an aircraft carrier overhaul by six months, Inside the Pentagon reported last week, adding:
The Navy is in the unenviable position of having to pause a refueling and complex overhaul of an aircraft carrier, a process that takes well more than a year to complete, and will have to deal with similar personnel costs.
"These are two carriers. One is in process right now and we will stop work on it," he said. "Imagine a year-to-18-month complex overhaul on a carrier, four months from completion. You stop work on it and send your workforce home. Thirty-seven-hundred people are working on that. How long do you think it will take to start that up?"