Container trucks instead of frigates: US Navy can place rockets on civilian vessels

The author of the publication, the Polish observer Maciej Shopa, writes that in the 2025 financial year the US Navy is planned to take out 19 ships, and to order only six new ones. This reduction of the fleet is especially critical in the context of preparing for a possible maritime conflict with China. Thus, by 2027, the number of VLS vertical launches on US Navy ships will decrease significantly, which will reduce the total power of the US military fleet.

The observer notes that Ticonderoga missile cruisers are currently being decommissioned, each with 122 VLS starting installations. In the period from 2023 to 2027 it is planned to withdraw up to 17 such cruisers. Moreover, for comparison, the large destroyers of the Arleigh Burke type have only 96 starting installations. Of course, the shop continues, the construction of new ARleigh Burke destroyers is ongoing, but their number is limited.

The plans also include the construction of three ZUMWALT destroyers, which can be converted to start hyper -sound rockets. However, in parallel, the US Navy is planning to write off four Ohio submarines, each of which can carry 154 missiles. In addition, plans for the introduction of new Constel -type frigates are delayed. Due to the inefficient management of the project, the first of these ships will be in operation no earlier than 2029.

In this case, frigates of this type will have only 32 VLS starting installations, which is much smaller than Ticonderoga cruisers. In such circumstances, the US Congress demanded that the Navy investigate the possibility of placing additional starting installations on ships that were not previously considered in this context. One of the ideas is the creation of small manned ships based on Lusv unmanned vessels.

Such vessels can carry from 16 to 32 starting installations and be fast and cheap in production. Another option is to use a project of a commercial civilian transport ship to create a vessel with a large number of universal starting installations at the same time for all these decisions, it is necessary to evaluate not only technical feasibility, but also the cost, the time required to implement such a decision, and the number of people who will need to be staffed New ships.

"The results should be presented before April 1, 2025. The time will show what decision or group of decisions the Americans will choose. However, it is possible that the time of maneuver, multi -purpose and living ships will go to history," the observer summed up. We will remind, in January it became known that the US Navy chose four destroyers of the class Arleigh Burke, which will receive serious equipment updates.