CNO: Cutting costs key to fleet’s future

CNO: Cutting costs key to fleet’s future
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 14, 2009 18:41:51 EST

“Tough choices and appetite suppression” are two keys to the Navy reaching its goal of a 313-ship fleet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said Wednesday, because the service needs to keep around its existing fleet for as long as possible and simultaneously control costs for the new ships it wants.

“We cannot afford any gold plating,” Roughead said, and he reiterated the need to manage ships’ life-cycle costs, “maintain restraint when designing manning models,” and field the most efficient fleet as possible to get ahead of another potential spike in fuel costs.

Roughead told a packed auditorium at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium that he has been studying the operating costs of the Navy’s latest ships, and the prospect of high fuel and operating costs decades from now “scares the heck out of me.”

The world is running out of oil, he said. “If we don’t get serious about energy, we’re delivering a terrible future to our children.”

To stave that off, the Navy needs to put its maximum effort toward making its ships as efficient as possible, Roughead said. “It’s not just going to be trailing another shaft or turning off lights in more spaces.”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/navy_SNA_roughead_011409w/%2e