Top official: Optimal manning ‘went too far’ - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Top official: Optimal manning ‘went too far’

SAN DIEGO — The Navy will disestablish a number of staffs for squadrons and groups throughout the Navy, according to the department’s No. 2 civilian.

“We were not forced to do this. This was the [chief of naval operations] and his commanders looking at the organization of the Navy saying, ‘How can we provide the better bang for the buck?’ ” Navy Undersecretary Bob Work told a group of service members and contractors at the U.S. Naval Institute/AFCEA West 2011 conference Jan. 26. “These were deliberate consolidations.”

Along with disestablishing 2nd Fleet, Work said the Navy will close Submarine Squadrons 2, 3 and 8, Destroyer Squadron 24, Carrier Strike Group 7, Carrier Air Wing 14 and Surface Warfare Development Group.

It will also consolidate Patrol Squadron Special Projects Units 1 and 2 in Hawaii, and Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons 1 and 2 in Whidbey Island, Wash.

Cuts, though, make room for increases in the fleet. The Navy will send 2,200 sailors to fill “optimal manning” billets cut from cruisers, destroyers and dock landing ships.

“That experiment we have concluded went too far,” Work said. “The material condition of the fleet we believe suffered because of it.”

Work also wanted to explain to the crowd the service’s decision to split the contract for the fleet of littoral combat ships between two companies.

The decision to buy two different hull designs, and the LCS itself, has had its share of critics, which Work dismissed with details about the program’s history and requirements to counter threats in the future fleet.

LCS “is one of the most misunderstood ships in the history of the Navy,” Work said. “We are not exactly sure of how it will finally operate in the fleet.”

But that’s not a bad thing, he insisted.

The Navy needs a ship with a shallow draft that can hunt mines and diesel submarines, and ward off swarms of enemy boats — “threats that exist today,” Work said.

LCS pools capabilities and missions the Navy has had in its fleet of smaller vessels, including coastal patrol craft and Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships. The additional capability to launch helicopters and rigid inflatable boats lets LCS do those missions “at a far cheaper cost.”

“It was a bold decision to make, and I am confident — confident — that it will prove out to be the smart one,” he said.

Work estimated at $800 million the total life-cycle costs to buy two versions, which will have similar combat systems and trained crews.

“It was a no-brainer,” he said.

He rejected criticism that the LCS adds little more than what the Navy has with its frigate fleet.

“We do not need frigates,” he said.

Although the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate “has been proving the LCS concept for six years,” doing maritime security, counterterrorism and counter-drug missions, “LCS will do those missions, too, and do those other three missions better than any of the other ships.”