The updated 30-year shipbuilding plan limits the Navy’s options for its future force and offers greater insight into its intention to decommission 19 ships. It outlines two potential paths for fleet expansion: one constrained by flat budgets and another aiming to achieve the Navy’s goal of 381 ships aligned with the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy.
The latest plan includes a comprehensive list of 19 decommissionings requested by the Navy for Fiscal Year 2025. While the Navy disclosed ten ships earmarked for early retirement as part of the recent budget rollout, it withheld the names of the remaining nine slated to exit the fleet.
Among these unnamed vessels is the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Helena (SSN-725), which concluded its last deployment in 2017 and underwent maintenance at Newport News until 2022.
It remains uncertain if the submarine will undergo another deployment prior to its scheduled decommissioning, with a submarine force spokesperson indicating the intention to fully utilize USS Helena until its decommissioning date.
Among the ships not previously mentioned for decommissioning are nuclear attack submarines USS Pasadena (SSN-752) and USS Topeka (SSN-754), cruisers USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) and USS Normandy (CG-60), and Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships USS Sentry (MCM-3), USS Devastator (MCM-6), USS Gladiator (MCM-11), and USS Dextrous (MCM-13).
These nine vessels supplement the decommissioning roster released last week, which includes two additional cruisers, the first four expeditionary fast transports, one Whidbey Island-class docking landing ship, one expeditionary transfer dock, and two littoral combat ships: USS Shiloh (CG-67), USS Lake Erie (CG-70), USNS Spearhead (EPF-1), USNS Choctaw County (EPF-2), USNS Millinocket (EPF-3), USNS Fall River (EPF-4), USS Germantown (LSD-42), USNS John Glenn (ESD-2), USS Jackson (LCS-6), and USS Montgomery (LCS-8). As outlined in the plan, the cruisers, LCSs, and two of the Spearhead EPFs will serve as parts donors for other active duty ships.
Notably absent from the decommissioning list is the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). While last year’s plan slated USS Nimitz (CVN-68) for departure from the fleet next year, USS Eisenhower’s exclusion is a departure from the FY 2024 plan, which had indicated its decommissioning in 2027. Recent reports suggest the carrier’s extension beyond FY 2029.
The shipbuilding plan presents two funding profiles: one, based on the 2023 Battle Force Ship Assessment and Requirement study, demands more funding than the recent budget proposal and aims for a larger fleet, referred to as the “official PB2025 shipbuilding plan.”
The second profile outlines a resource-constrained approach, indicating what the Navy can construct and sustain without funding increases surpassing inflation.
The high-end projection suggests an average annual growth of $2.7 billion, adjusted for inflation, beyond the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) in FY2024 constant dollars.
This elevated procurement level, guided by industrial capacity and performance metrics, targets 330 manned battle force ships by the mid-2030s, reaching 377 by FY2045.
Although the Navy’s internal assessment indicates a need for 381 crewed battle force ships to fulfill its National Defense Strategy obligation, the service is preparing around the more conservative plan, which aims for 348 hulls by FY 2042, before achieving the aspirational goal of 381 ships in 2043 under the best-resourced scenario.
The primary discrepancy between the two long-term plans lies in the quantity of surface warships and combat logistics force ships.
The alternative profile introduces risk beyond the five-year defense plan to the industrial bases of both large and small surface combatants and combat logistics force.
Under the lower-end plan, there would be a reduction in small surface combatants such as frigates and LCSs, while still maintaining the congressionally mandated minimum of 31 amphibious warships, 12 nuclear ballistic-missile submarines, and sustaining the current build rate for attack submarines, aiming for 60 hulls by the 2040s.
Relevant articles:
– US Navy’s plan to replace fleet of MH60s moves forward, Shephard Media
– Range Shipbuilding Plan Details 19 Ship Decommissionings in FY 2025, USNI News
– year shipbuilding plan sketches 2 paths for future manned ship fleet, Breaking Defense
– USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: May 6, 2024, USNI News