Designing the Future U.S. Naval Surface Fleet for Effectiveness and Producibility

David Taylor Research Center is just commencing investigations into a new manner of defining future fleet architectures. The cost of current performance-driven ship designs has increased at a rapid rate. While it is true that a warship designed with insufficient performance is of meager utility, it is also true that the best performing warship design is of no utility if never built. Both performance and affordability are required if sufficient numbers of ships are to be built to counter the threat. By designing a future fleet architecture with producibility as a major requirement from the start, we hope to impact the acquisition cost significantly. One battle force concept titled "Distribute, Disperse, Disguise and Sustain" suggests two fundamental surface ship types; the Carrier of Large Objects (CLO) and the Scout Fighter. A CLO feasibility design in progress, Carrier Dock Multimission, is outlined to inform shipbuilding researchers of an initiative that promises to have significant impact on naval ship procurement and provide increased visibility within the U.S. Navy on producibility issues. Before an attempt is made to conceptualize a future U.S. naval surface fleet, to help create a vision of the U.S. Navy for the year 2030 and beyond, the shortcomings of the current surface Navy must be addressed first. An honest assessment of where we are now is a must for us to determine where we need to be in the future and how to get there.