WASHINGTON — The Navy Learns Lessons of his battle in the Red Sea in the past year and what Ukraine has done to stop the Russians in the Black Sea, helping US military leaders prepare the service for a possible future conflict with China.
From drones and unmanned surface ships to the more advanced operation of shipboard guns, the Navy is expanding its combat capabilities and broadening its training. It’s also working to overcome recruitment challenges so it can have the sailors it needs to fight the next war.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, laid out a series of goals, including some that will be extremely challenging to achieve, in a new navigation plan she described in an interview with The Associated Press. The goal is to be ready to deal with whatever the Pentagon calls its top national security challenge — China.
“I am very focused on 2027. It is the year that President Xi (Jinping) told his troops to be ready to invade Taiwan,” Franchetti said. “We need to be more prepared.”
The new plan, to be presented on Wednesday, includes seven priority goals, she said, ranging from eliminating delays in ship depot maintenance to improving the navy’s infrastructure, recruiting personnel and using drones and autonomous systems.
A key challenge is to have 80 percent of the force ready to deploy for combat at any given time, if needed. She acknowledged that this is a “stretch goal.” The key, she said, is to achieve a level of combat readiness where “when the nation calls us, we can hit the ‘go’ button and augment our forces to meet the call.”
The announcement of the goals comes as US leaders walk a fine line between committing to Taiwan’s defense while working to maintain its security. open communication with Beijing to avoid bigger conflicts.
Taiwan, an autonomous island democracy that seceded from communist China in 1949, rejected the proposal. Beijing’s demands that it accept unification. China says it will do so by force if necessary. The United States is obligated under national law to help defend Taiwan and provide it with weapons and technology to deter invasion.
A key element in any conflict in the Asia-Pacific region will be the need to control the seas. Franchetti said the U.S. can learn from how the Ukrainians have used drones, airstrikes and long-range unmanned vessels to Restrict Russian shipping activity in the western Black Sea and keep access to critical ports open.
“If you look at the Ukrainian success in pushing the Russian Black Sea Fleet all the way to the east, it’s all about denying the sea and that’s very important,” Franchetti said, adding that Ukraine has innovated on the battlefield by using existing systems, such as drones, in different ways.
The Navy’s months-long battle with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen has taught other lessons.
“I don’t think anyone is learning more from this than the Navy, because this is really the first time we’ve been in a weapons combat zone for this long,” she said.
She said sailors are monitoring the attacks and analyzing the data as the ships respond.
Earlier this year, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier was stationed in the Red Sea to assist Israel and defend commercial and military ships from attacks by the Houthis. The carrier returned home after a deployment of more than eight months that the Navy said most intense naval battle since World War II.
F/A-18 fighter jets routinely took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier to disable Houthis’ weapons, and Navy fighters continually fired missiles and used on-board guns to take out attacks and drones.
Aboard the USS Mason destroyer, stationed with the Eisenhower, Franchetti met and promoted one of the destroyer’s fire control sailors working on the ship’s large, fully automatic artillery gun in August. Unlike missiles, many of the drones launched by the Houthis were more complex and challenging to target and shoot down, and he was able to modify the gun to better defeat them.
“He could see how the weapon performed against the Houthi threat,” Franchetti said, “and he came up with a different way to use the weapon to make it more effective in these fights.”
She did not identify the sailor and declined to provide details of the exact changes he recommended. But it resulted in new formal military tactics and procedures that were disseminated to all other ships.
Another major effort will be to improve the Navy’s development of unmanned and autonomous systems and weapons and integrate them into training and combat. As the military introduces new technologies, including unmanned surface vessels, the Navy must ensure it has trained sailors who can operate and repair them.
The new navigation plan states that the Navy is currently working on concepts and requirements for larger robotic systems and the artificial intelligence applications they can use to understand and control the battlefield.
Navy leaders also understand the financial constraints they are likely to face from Congress — constraints that rivals like China do not. China outnumbers the U.S. in the number of ships and is expected to continue to do so.
Navy officials said that while they want a bigger navy, they need to compensate by working more effectively with the Army, Air Force, Space Force and Marines, something the U.S. has historically been very good at.
One challenge will be to eliminate the maintenance overruns that often prevent ships from deploying on time. Franchetti said getting ships in and out of depots on time is critical to having a combat-ready Navy.
“These are the things we know we need to be able to do to ensure that the armed forces are better prepared every day,” she said.