Earlier in March, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus revised how to count the size of the U.S.’s battle force inventory. The battle force inventory is important because it measures the size of the U.S. combat fleet. The new definition will make the U.S. combat fleet look larger than it really is. This provides a political shield against legitimate concerns that the Navy is shrinking. Ships included in the battle force inventory had been “warships capable of contributing to combat operations” or ships that contribute “directly to Navy warfighting or support missions.” Aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and submarines are included in the former; examples of the latter are mine warfare vessels.
Under the new definition hospital ships will be included in the battle force inventory. So will mine countermeasure ships: they had previously been categorized by their ability “to provide support to fleet units.” This classification made sense because while hunting for, and destroying, enemy mines could enable a naval squadron to conduct offensive operations, such missions could neither sink enemy ships nor project power ashore. Also added to the battle force inventory are coastal patrol (PC) boats. Weighing in at about one-seventh the displacement of the littoral combat ship, the Navy’s smallest combat vessel, the PC is armed with twin 25mm guns and several .50 caliber machine guns. If an enemy has attacked the U.S. Navy with container ships, cabin cruisers, or sailboats a 25mm gun is a fearsome thing. If an enemy attack is conducted by such small widely-operated naval combat ships as frigates, the anti-ship missiles they commonly carry will sink a PC far beyond its small weapons’ range.
