Large and small do not mean what they used to, and the Navy’s rating system probably should be redefined to better align with modern warfighting capabilities. An Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship, rated as a small combatant, is 418 feet long, just 87 feet shorter than the larger destroyer. The Constellation-class frigate, a ship type traditionally rated as a small combatant, is expected to clock in at over 7,400 tons, a mere 1,500 tons less than a Flight I Arleigh Burke destroyer. The line between large and small combatant, always fraught to begin with, is getting progressively tougher to distinguish. Like the US fleet, however, the number of shipyards in the US has shrunk since the Cold War, making the Navy's task more complicated.That failure is unfortunate, as America’s public and policymaker communities need clarity more than ever. The Navy was building eight Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates a year in three shipyards at the peak of that program, and its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are now being built in two shipyards. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, told lawmakers. We want to make sure that we are measuring twice and cutting once before that decision is made," Adm. Given Fincantieri's other commitments, the Navy will need another shipyard to reach that goal.Īt a Senate hearing in April, the service's top civilian and uniformed officials said they expected to get information about the ship design from Fincantieri by the end of the year, which they will review to determine whether another shipyard can build the frigates. The Navy plans to buy the first seven frigates in a "saw-tooth" pattern, alternating between one and two a year until 2028, but the service hopes to increase that to four ships a year. The US Navy's guided-missile frigate USS Curts in a dry dock at a shipyard in California in January 1982. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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