Monday, October 20, 2014

Navy with more admirals than surface warships?

Future RN

Royal Navy

now SMALLER than in Lord Nelson's time and has more admirals than warships - Mirror Online
The shrunken Royal Navy now has nearly twice as many admirals as surface warships.
Despite destroyers and frigates being cut to a paltry 19, the Senior Service still boasts 33 admirals on £100,000 a year.

The Royal Navy with more admirals than surface warships? — MercoPress
“Documents seen by the Mirror prove there are 14 more admirals than there are modern warships as defined by Parliament’s Defense Select Committee”.
The dramatic reduction in destroyers and frigates from 33 in the past decade reflects a huge decline in capability. The Royal Navy was, until the Second World War, the largest on the planet.

US Navy

Army and Navy Cutting Generals and Admirals Ever So Slightly
The Army and Navy are finally doing something about brass bloat..
CNO: Navy plans to restructure flag billets | Navy Times | navytimes.com
The Navy is executing a plan to restructure a number of flag officer billets — cutting and merging some, while reducing the rank of others, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert announced in a letter this week sent to admirals and senior executives.
“We took care to balance the reductions across officer communities and are confident that the plan will permit flag officer promotions to occur within the year of selection,” Greenert wrote in the message, obtained by Navy Times.
Navy Times also received a PowerPoint slide showing how these billets would be restructured. But a Navy official cautioned the document is in the final stages of completion and changes are expected. The flag billets to be deleted are three O-7 fleet billets: the U.S. Pacific Command surgeon job and command billets at Submarine Group 2 and Expeditionary Strike Group 5, according to the slides. There are 10 billets merging with other jobs and 19 flag roles downgraded to captain billets. Changes will be phased in, with a target end date of fiscal 2016.
Army, Navy target top brass, headquarters spending in latest cuts - Stripes
WASHINGTON — With a warning that “the money is gone,” military leaders driven by falling defense spending are moving to cut top brass positions and slash headquarters spending.
The Navy announced late Tuesday that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus had approved a plan to “reduce, eliminate or consolidate a net of 35 Navy flag officer positions” at the one-, two- and three-star ranks. The Navy said it also plans to eliminate 6 more top officer positions in the 2015 budget.
And last week, a memo from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh declared that a plan to cut Army headquarters at the two-star level and above by 25 percent was priority No. 1 for headquarters staff.
The Navy said flag officer end strength is being reduced using a “phased approach” and will be complete by 2017, resulting in 151 Navy-specific billets and 61 flag officers to fill joint billets.

By statute, there are no more than 162 admirals in the US Navy. There are currently approximately 122 Surface Warships in the US Navy as of FY 2011 and its still declining, or 30 less than the number of Navy Admirals. If you add in submarines, Mine Warfare, Amphibs and Auxiliaries, there were 285 active ships, or 1.89 per Admiral.

U.S.Navy Active Ship Force Levels, 2000 to 2011

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