Page 25: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2016)

“Sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms”

If you’ve been to sea, you’ve heard boson pipe followed by these words many times. “Sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms. Give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft.

Sweep down all lower decks, ladder and passageways.”

So that’s what Maritime Reporter’s naval affairs editor, re- tired Navy Captain Ned Lundquist, will try to do in our new quarterly column discussing military ship spending & trends. will replace the 16 active Ohio-class maintain forward presence, not to men- nuclear-powered ballistic missile sub- tion are uniquely capable of dealing with marines (SSBNs) with a new class of 12 the asymmetric threats of mines, subma- submarines, all designed to keep the U.S. rines and swarms of armed surface craft within strategic weapons treaty limits for in the littoral.

launchers and warheads. The SSBNs are “The Navy’s strategic future requires part of the nation’s nuclear triad, which more on focusing on posture, not only on also includes land-based bombers and presence, and more on new capabilities, ? xed missile silos. The ORP bill is ex- not only on new ship numbers,” Carter pected to far exceed the Navy’s normal said in a letter to Navy Secretary Ray shipbuilding budget, so some ? nancial Mabus.

? nagling will be required to have some There is a balance between capability kind of separate budget category. and capacity. Even the most capable

It might seem that with such an expen- warship can be everywhere all the time. sive proposition, it might make sense to LCS would be the platform most prob- phase out the air and land based delivery ably on station to provide visible pres- systems, and put all the strategic weapons ence around the world. in the SSBN basket, as the submarines are the most survivable leg of the triad. Distributed Lethality

The ? rst replacement sub could enter “Even as these challenges become service in 2021, but the program needs more complex, the character of the game to get started now. In the meantime, the accelerates forward and becomes faster land-based ICBMs must be modernized, and more challenging, as the competitors and the Air Force’s long-range strategic also become more numerous and more bomber program has commenced, also challenging,” said Richardson, speaking a costly programs. And it may surprise at the Surface Navy Association’s annual you that some submariners argue against symposium in January. relying solely on the SSBNs. If the ? eet The challenge of anti-ship missiles in of SSBNs were the sole delivery system and around the world’s choke points has of America’s nuclear arsenal, then a po- been compounded as new weapons are tential adversary would dedicate enor- introduced, that are faster, have longer mous resources to counter it. With the range, and may be more destructive, triad, there is no single point of failure, Richardson said.

and an enemy’s problem is much more “Our budget is likely to remain un- complicated. der pressure for the foreseeable future,”

The problem of paying for the strategic Richardson said at SNA. “It’s clear that capability may come at the expense of we’re not going to be able to spend and conventional platforms. Even the sacro- buy our way out of this. We’ve got to sanct aircraft carrier could be a budget be thinking about new ways to do busi- casualty. ness.”

Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recent- The SNA symposium theme was “The ly noti? ed the Navy that it needed to cut Surface Warfare Strategy: A view be- back its plans to acquire LCS from 52 yond the horizon.” Vice Adm. Tom ships to 40. Such a move would seri- Rowden’s concept of “distributed lethal- ously disrupt the shipbuilding plan, and ity” to “increase the combat capability of reduce ships that are sorely needed to naval surface forces,” makes sense.

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