Navy could use unconventional means to quickly increase its firepower

The Navy’s ability to help defeat Chinese forces in a potential confrontation over Taiwan could improve if hundreds of missile launchers were added to dozens of existing and retired vessels, according to a recent study.

That unique remedy could offer the Navy a worthwhile patch for bolstering ship and missile launcher numbers while the service works to increase the size of its fleet and strengthen lethality over the coming years, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report published this month.

China’s naval power is steadily increasing and Beijing has indicated it is amassing the military power needed to invade and occupy Taiwan, which relies on U.S. military support and security commitments.

“To do that, the Navy needs to increase the fleet’s ability to sink more enemy ships at long ranges and destroy more targets on land, either by adding ships that carry offensive weapons or by putting more offensive weapons on existing ships,” the CBO said in the May 20 report, Increasing the Size and Missile Capability of the Navy’s Fleet Within the Next Five Years.

The report proposed three ways to grow the number of missile-carrying Navy ships by as many as 69 vessels and add as many as 640 missile launchers to the service’s inventory.

Those options include arming existing ships, such as amphibious and logistics vessels, that don’t normally carry missiles. Under such a proposal, the Navy would also reactivate other ships, such as littoral combat ships, and arm them.

Other alternatives studied in the report include buying used merchant ships or used surface drones and equipping them with missile launchers.

Costs for each of the three options range from $1.5 billion to $4.3 billion over the next five years, according to the report.

“Other options, such as building more ships, even in foreign shipyards, would probably not bring additional capability to the fleet within five years,” the CBO said.

The CBO did not make a recommendation, but the Navy could choose to use any, all or none of the options.

The Navy is working to bolster its capabilities, with a renewed focus on shipbuilding and harnessing emerging technologies.

That effort includes the initiative called Golden Fleet, which aims to preserve the Navy’s existing platforms while rapidly expanding its force of surface combatants, auxiliary ships and unmanned vessels.

But it will be years in the making. For example, the fleet will slightly decline in size before adding about eight vessels by 2031. The Navy won’t reach its projected battle force size of 398 ships until 2056, according to its shipbuilding plan released earlier this month.

The Navy currently has 291 ships, including aircraft carriers, submarines, cruisers, destroyers and littoral combat ships, among others, according to the CBO report.

Meanwhile, the service also is working to spread sensors and firepower across a larger number of ships and other platforms while ensuring they can still operate together as a coordinated force.

That work comes as the U.S. prepares for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the coming years.

Previously, officials expected a potential Chinese offensive against the self-ruled island as soon as next year, but a recent U.S. intelligence report indicates that is unlikely, saying there is no clear timeline for when Beijing would attempt to reunify Taiwan with China.

“China, despite its threat to use force to compel unification if necessary and to counter what it sees as a U.S. attempt to use Taiwan to undermine China’s rise, prefers to achieve unification without the use of force, if possible,” the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community states.

It adds that “China publicly insists that unification with Taiwan is required to achieve its goal of ‘national rejuvenation’ by 2049 — the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.”

According to the CBO, 107 Navy ships currently do not have the ability to launch missiles.

One option to increase naval strength would equip 43 of those ships, such as expeditionary fast transport vessels and oilers, with missile launch systems. That would result in 640 more missile launchers and add 69 more missile-carrying ships to the fleet, the CBO said.

Some of those vessels, including reactivated littoral combat ships, would be able to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, Standard Missile-6 or similar weapons. Others would fire Naval Strike Missiles, which have a shorter range, the report states.

Navy ships and submarines currently carry a total of 9,100 vertical launching system cells, or tubes, for firing offensive and defensive missiles, according to the CBO.

“In certain wartime scenarios, having more ships that are able to bring anti-ship capability to the fight could complicate an adversary’s military operations and ability to target all potential threats,” the CBO said.

But the report recognized that using amphibious and logistics vessels to carry missiles was inconsistent with their missions to carry and deploy Marines or deliver food, fuel, ammunition and other supplies to ships.

Unless amphibious and logistics ships equipped with missiles came upon a target opportunity or were used as a last resort, it was unlikely they would be employed “in a wartime situation in which their anti-ship weapons would be deliberately brought to bear,” the CBO said.

Importantly, the report did not evaluate the Navy’s ability to arm more missile launchers. The service’s missile inventory data was not publicly available, according to the report.

Even if the Navy’s missile inventory is insufficient to fill all the missile launchers referred to in the report within five years, they would still offer value in combat, the CBO said.

For example, adversaries would not know whether a given ship was carrying weapons, the report states.

“Even a ship equipped with empty missile launchers could still complicate an enemy’s ability to locate, identify, and target every missile-carrying ship or vessel,” the CBO said.