On Sept. 18, 2024, the new Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti issued her “Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy 2024.” The plan seeks “readiness for sustained high-end joint and combined combat by 2027.” The CNO press release quotes Franchetti: “The Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy is my overarching strategic guidance to make our Navy more ready, prioritizing raising our level of readiness for potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China by 2027 while also enhancing the Navy’s long-term warfighting advantage.”
The basis for this capability, according to the Navy’s Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office, is to develop and deploy “the Columbia and U.K. Dreadnought Strategic Weapons Systems (SWS) and advanced weapon capabilities in the TRIDENT II D5LE2 missile and W93/Mk7 warhead and reentry body assembly. Simultaneously, SSP will develop and deliver the U.S. Navy’s non-nuclear Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic Missile capability to fill a critical deterrence gap in our full spectrum of deterrence SWS.”
In other words, the U.S. Navy has been instructed to develop and deploy the ability to wage strategic war on China by 2027. That warfare will include both “conventional” hypersonic missiles to attack Chinese sites and intercept Chinese missiles aimed at the U.S., as well as the capability to launch nuclear missiles from U.S. and U.K. submarines at China, and to maintain the ability to continue to fight nuclear war with any other “adversary” after an initial missile attack on the Chinese.
