The Influence of History

Note the "62" on this image from the Navy.mil announcement - has sanity finally returned to USN hull numbers? With the recently announced selection of the Fincantieri offering for the United States Navy's (USN) FFG(X) program, we now have enough knowledge of what the future USS Constellation will look like to post a notional missile loadout page. Now, the Constellation-class remains very much a paper design and will not join the fleet until at least 2026, so this post is even more speculative than my other missile loadouts posts . However, the result of the FFG(X) program has several unique aspects to its armament that are worth discussing. We now know that the planned armament of the Constellation-class will consist of a 32-cell Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) forward, four quad canister launchers for the RGM-184 Naval Strike Missile (NSM) amidships, and a 21-cell box launcher for RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) aft. This is a considerable quantity and v...

Since the end of the Cold War, the Chinese Navy has grown from an obsolete coast defense force into the second largest navy in the world. Now composed of every class of modern warship, including aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and guided missile destroyers, as well as the necessary auxiliaries needed to support them, the Chinese Navy has become a true blue water force seemingly overnight. However, a closer examination reveals that the growth of the Chinese Navy has actually been rather measured and may well be aiming for a smaller overall force than many estimate. For the purposes of this post, I'm only going to be covering the larger Chinese surface combatants because accurate numbers on their small combatants, submarines, and auxiliaries are simply not available. However, this may actually overestimate the Chinese expansion because the growth of their auxiliary and submarine fleets in particular have lagged behind that of their surface force. Naval Growth Lags Econ...