New Navy Plan Seeks 500-Ship Strong “Hybrid Fleet” Mix of Drones & Manned Vessels

Video Above: Maj. Gen. Pringle Manned-Unmanned Teaming

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The Chief of Naval Operations newly released 2022 Navigation Plan calls for a large, “Hybrid Fleet” in coming decades consisting of a mixture of large surface ships, submarines, drones and unmanned platforms of all kinds. Of greatest significance, perhaps, is the Navy Navigation Plan’s call for a 500-ship fleet combining manned and unmanned vessels. This is by no means surprising given the pace and scope of Chinese naval expansion.

US Navy 2022 Navigation Plan

Adm. Michael Gilday’s use of the term “Hybrid” seems somewhat defining given that it describes the Navy’s growing blend of manned and unmanned ships in an increasingly networked fleet capable of executing dispersed, disaggregated missions across a vast operational envelope.

“The Navy must become a hybrid fleet. Manned, multi-mission platforms will remain at the core of our future fleet, but augmented with new platforms and new capabilities. We will add to our current fleet a host of manned, unmanned and optionally-manned platforms operating under, on, and above the seas,” Gilday writes in the plan.

Gilday’s text is specific on both numbers and a timeline, as it calls for a combined total of 500 manned and unmanned ships of all sizes and configurations capable of conducting a wide mixture of multi-domain operations.

“In the 2040s and beyond, we envision this hybrid fleet to require more than 350 manned ships, about 150 large unmanned surface and subsurface platforms, and approximately 3,000 aircraft,” the text of the plan reads. “As the security environment evolves, we will continue to iteratively refine our capacity goals through force structure assessments, analysis, war-gaming, and experimentation.”