Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lisa Franchetti used her Navigation Plan (NAVPLAN) to target achieving readiness for potential war with China by 2027.
The NAVPLAN is a strategic guidance document published by the top Navy officer, allowing them to share their vision and provide a direction they will push the service toward. This latest plan was released on Sept. 18.
Franchetti wrote that the previous 2022 NAVPLAN outlined 18 critical lines of effort to move towards warfighting advantage and the Navy has made significant progress there. The CNO said she now sees seven areas the service needs to accelerate on, called Project 33 targets, reflecting her tenure as the 33rd CNO.
“This Navigation Plan drives toward two strategic ends: readiness for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027 and enhancing the Navy’s long-term advantage. We will work towards these ends through two mutually reinforcing ways: implementing Project 33 and expanding the Navy’s contribution to the Joint warfighting ecosystem,” Franchetti wrote.
Project 33 is specifically aimed at Franchetti’s previously stated focus of getting more ready players on the field by 2027. This will push hard “to make strategically meaningful gains in the fastest possible time with the resources we influence.”
The document says the 2027 deadline is derived from Chinese leadership telling military forces to be ready for war by 2027. Franchetti said China’s military poses a threat beyond the large size of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet.
“Ships matter greatly but gone are the days when we assessed threats based purely on the number of battle force ships or tonnage. Through operational concepts like multi-domain precision warfare, grey zone and economic campaigns, expansion of dual use infrastructure (e.g., airfields) and dual use forces (e.g., Chinese maritime militia), and a growing nuclear arsenal, the PRC presents a complex multi-domain and multi-axis threat.”
Franchetti highlighted that her “North Star” for Project 33 is that by 2027 have the Navy more ready for sustained combat as part of a joint and combined force, prioritizing China as the pacing challenge “and focusing on enabling the Joint warfighting ecosystem.”
Specifically, Project 33 targets the Navy being able to achieve and sustain, by 2027, an 80 percent combat surge ready posture for ships, submarines and aircraft by eliminating maintenance delays and overruns; integrate proven robotic and autonomous systems for routine use; all fleet headquarters have ready Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs) certified and proficient in command and control, information, intelligence, fires, movement and maneuver, protection and sustainment functions, starting with Pacific Fleet; and achieve 100 percent rating fill for the Navy’s active and reserve components while manning deploying units to 95 percent of billets authorized and full 100 percent of strategic depth mobilization billets. This is in contrast to the 22,000 sailor shortfall the Navy faced at the start of 2024.
Franchetti noted that ships and submarines should ideally be divided into about one third in maintenance, one third in training and one third on or ready for deployment at any given time. If the Navy can eliminate delays from maintenance overruns, then “we can dramatically increase the combat surge readiness of our platforms.”
She also emphasized the MOCs are how the Navy executes fleet-level warfare and facilitate mission command to lower echelons and the Navy will treat MOCs “like the warfighting systems that they are, capable of operating on a decentralized and global battlefield just like all other weapons systems.”
Other Project 33 goals are that the Navy will eliminate involuntary living aboard ships in homeport and provide adequate housing for sailors; improved live, virtual and construction (LVC) training by having “reliable, realistic, relevant, and recordable LVC-enabled architectures to train Navy warfighters to successfully execute high-end warfighting in Joint and fully informed training environments”; and have the service assess, prioritize and program resources to repair infrastructure directly supporting Navy Task Critical Assets to improve operational readiness in the Pacific.
Infrastructure repairs will include piers, runways, utilities and other shore capabilities with an infrastructure condition rated as poor or worse.
Franchetti also acknowledged the Navy “cannot manifest a bigger traditional Navy in a few short years” so while they will work with Congress to invest in the industrial base capacity and grow the budget to deliver a larger force, without the increase Navy leadership will continue to prioritize readiness, capability, and capacity.
Franchetti reiterated the 2022 NAVPLAN’s line that the Navy needs three to five percent sustained budget growth above actual inflation to modernize and grow the capacity of the fleet is still true.
“We must recognize that the Navy faces real financial and industrial constraints, including the once-in-a-generation cost of recapitalizing our strategic nuclear deterrent,” she continued.
Therefore, the CNO argued this 2024 NAVPLAN reflects the current focus on readiness and capability while considering the realities of near-term budgeting and industrial capacity.