On Sept. 27 , 2024, the new Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Laura Franchetti issued her “CNO NAVPLAN 2024.” The plan calls for “readiness for sustained high-end joint and combined combat by 2027… and to enhance our long-term warfighting advantage … to be ready for combat with China by 2027, the year that their Chairman said they should be ready for war….” The requirement for this, according to the Navy’s Strategic Systems Program (SSP) office will be to develop and deploy “the Columbia and U.K. Dreadnought (missile submarines) with the Trident II missile and W93/Mk7 warhead…. Simultaneously, SSP will develop and deliver the U. S. Navy’s non-nuclear Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic.”
In other words, the U.S. Navy has been instructed to develop and deploy the capability to wage strategic war on China by 2027. That will include “conventional” hypersonic missiles to attack Chinese sites, and intercept Chinese missiles aimed at the U.S. It will also include the capability to launch nuclear missiles from U.S. and U.K. submarines at China. Finally, the idea is to maintain the ability to continue to fight nuclear war with any other “adversary” after an initial missile attack on the Chinese.
