The Navy intends to conduct another force structure assessment within the next year to account for the new National Defense Strategy, according to a senior service official.

“There’s a series of events that have to happen before we do the FSA starting with the combatant commanders all the way down to the defense planning guidance that leads us to the scenarios we need to plan for,” Vice Adm. William Merz, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems (N9), told the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee at a March 6 hearing.

He added that multiple studies on the Navy’s force architecture all point to the service needing a larger fleet.

“We don’t expect much of that to change with the next FSA. There may be some changes on the margin, there may be another number that we’re shooting for, but it’s going to be bigger than we are today. We have to move out and we have to move out aggressively as we go forward,” he said.

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