The Future of the Navy's Amphibious and Maritime Prepositioning Forces
Abstract
Today, the U.S. Navy numbers about 293 battle force ships, including 35 amphibious warfare ships, which are designed to carry marines and their equipment into combat. In addition, the Navy has 16 cargo ships that make up the maritime prepositioning force, which carries equipment and 30 days worth of supplies for three Marine infantry brigades (though not the marines themselves). The Navy plans to modernize both its amphibious and maritime prepositioning ships over the next 30 years. Its plans include developing a sea-basing capability that would allow the Navy to deploy and sustain Marine Corps units on shore without needing to build up a supply depot on land. Carrying out those plans would require the Navy to spend an average of $2.4 billion a year over the next three decades to buy new amphibious and maritime prepositioning ships more than twice what it has spent on those categories of ships since 1980. At the same time, the Navy has modernization plans for other types of ships that, if fully implemented, would also require more resources than the Navy now spends on ship construction. Are there ways to modernize the amphibious and maritime prepositioning forces at a lower cost than what the Navy plans to spend? This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study prepared at the request of the Subcommittee on Seapower of the Senate Committee on Armed Services addresses that question. It examines the Navy's modernizations plans for amphibious and maritime prepositioning ships and their budgetary implications. It also evaluates four lower-cost options for those ships, two of which would cost roughly what the Navy has spent annually since 1980 and two of which would require a spending increase of a little over one third. Those alternatives would result in smaller, less capable forces than the Navy envisions or than exist now but they would provide some of the capabilities that the Navy and Marine Corps desire.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA596404
Entities
Organizations
- Congressional Budget Office