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1 1 (July 21, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveedf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: I Research Afctmrno ttn~ i~b% &b rne IS 4 Updated July 21, 2021 Defense Primer: Naval Forces Naval Forces Refers to Both the Navy and Marine Corps Althoughthe termnavalforces is often used to refer specifically to Navy forces, it more properly refers to both Navy and Marine Corps forces, because both the Navy and Marine Corps are naval services. For further discussion, see Defense Primer: Department of the Navy. For a discussion of the Marine Corps that focuses on its organization as a ground-combat force, see CRS In Focus IF10571, Defense Primer: Organization of U.S. Ground Forces, by Barbara Salazar Torreon and Andrew Feickert. US. Strategy and Naval Forces U.S. naval forces give the United States the ability to convert the world's oceans-aglobalcommons that covers more than two-thirds ofthe planet's surface-into a medium of maneuver and operations for projecting U.S. power ashore and otherwise defending U.S. interests around the world. The ability to use theworld's oceans in this manner-and to deny other countries the use ofthe world's oceans for taking actions against U.S. interests-constitutes an immense asymmetric advantage for the United States. As discussed els ewhere (see Defense Primer: Geography, Strategy, and U.S. Force Design), the size and composition of U.S. naval forces reflect theposition of the United States as a Western Hemispherepower with a goalof preventing the emergence ofregionalhegemons in Eurasia. As a result, the U.S. Navy includes significant numbers of aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered attacks ubmarines, large surface combatants, large amphibious ships, and underway replenishment ships. Navy Ship Types The Navy's ballistic missile submarines (S SBNs) are dedicated to performing a singular mis sion of strategic nuclear deterrence. The Navy's other ships, which are sometimes referred to as the Navy's general-purpose ships, are generally multimission ships capable of performing a variety of miss ions other than strategic nuclear deterrence. The principal types of general-purpose ships in the Navy include attack submarines (SSNs); aircraft carriers (CVNs); large surface combatants, meaning cruisers (CGs) and destroyers (DDGs); small surface combatants, meaning frigates (FFGs), Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), mine warfare (MIW) ships, andpatrol craft (PCs); amphibious ships, whose primary function is to transport Marines and their equipment and supplies to distant operating areas and support Marine ship-to-shore movements and Marine operations ashore; combat logistics force (CLF) ships, which performunderway replenishment (UNREP) operations, meaning the at-sea resupply of combat ships; and other support ships of various types. The Navy's aircraft carriers embarkmultimis sion carrier air wings (CVWs) consisting of 60+ aircraft-mostly fixed- wing aircraft, plus a few helicopters. Each CVW typically includes 40 or more strike fighters that are capable of air-to- ground (strike) and air-to-air (fighter) combat operations. Size of the Navy The total number of ships in the Navy is a one-dimensional metric that leaves outmany other important factors bearing on the Navy's size and capabilities. Even so, observers often cite the totalnumber of ships in the U.S. Navy as a convenient way of summarizing the Navy's size and capabilities. The quoted number of ships in the Navy reflects the battle force ships counting method, which is a set of rules for which ships count (or do not count) toward the quoted number of ships . The battle force ships counting method was established in the early 1980s and has been modified by legislation in recentyears. Essentially, it includes ships that are readily deployable overseas, and which contribute to the Navy's overseas combat capability. The Naval History and Heritage Command maintains a database on numbers of ships in the Navy from 1886 to the present. (It is available here: https://www.history.navy.mil/res earch/ his tories/ship-histories/us-ship-force-levels.html.) Since this database extends back to 1886, it uses a different counting method thatis more suitable for working with older historical data. This alternate counting method, however, produces, for the 1980s onwards, figures for the total size of the Navy that are different than the figures produced by the battle force ships counting method. For this reason, using figures fromthe NHHC database to quote thesize of the Navy in recent years can cause confusion. Navy Force-Level Goal The Navy determines its force-levelgoal-the size and compositionof the fleet it would like to reach and maintain in coming years-through a Force Structure Analysis (FSA). FSAs are conducted every few years. For each type of ship, the FSA calculates the numberrequired for warfighting, and the number required for maintaining day- to-day forward-deployed presence overseas. TheNavy's current force-level goal, released in December2016, is to reach and maintain a fleet of 355 battle force ships of certain types and numbers. The Navy and DOD since 2019have been working to develop anewNavy force-level goal that is expectedto introduce at least some elements of a new fleet architecture featuring a s maller proportion oflarger ships (such as large- deck aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, large amphibious ships, andlarge resupply ships); a larger proportion of smaller ships (such as frigates, corvettes, smaller amphibious ships, smaller res upply ships, and perhaps https :/c rs reps

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