Navy drafting ‘Naval Operational Concept’

[unhappycamper]

A working draft of the Naval Operations Concept 2008 said that deployed carrier and expeditionary strike groups will “periodically” be formed into expeditionary strike group


Navy drafting ‘Naval Operational Concept’
By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 20:16:10 EDT

Deploying U.S. naval forces must be more flexible, able to split up and re-form in different combinations as situations require. The fleet still needs 11 aircraft carriers to meet its missions but more amphibious ships are required to support new missions. The number of formal and informal maritime partnerships will continue to grow. Even when mine-hunting Littoral Combat Ships come into service, a gap will remain in the Navy’s ability to combat the undersea threat. Ballistic missile defense is increasingly seen as a basic naval capability.

Those are some of the issues addressed in a working draft of the Naval Operations Concept (NOC) 2008, another in a series of documents meant to describe how, when and where U.S. naval forces will prevent conflict and prevail in war.

Draft copies dating from late September were obtained by Defense News, along with a less-mature annex dubbed the “Force Structure Data Sheet.”

A Navy official declined to comment on specific items in the document.

“It’s now in draft form and still being reviewed by senior authorities,” Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, said Monday.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/defense_noc_102108/%2e



uhc comment: "Even when mine-hunting Littoral Combat Ships come into service. . ." - there's only two of these $600,000,000 overpriced, 200% over budget, Deepwater ships available.