In its fiscal year 2022 shipbuilding plan, the Navy envisions a future fleet that is different—both in total fleet size and composition—from today’s fleet. The plan describes a future Navy composed of 398 to 512 manned ships and unmanned vessels (up from 296 manned ships today), but it does not detail the planned inventory, purchases, deliveries, and retirements of the ships in its fleet. CBO estimates that, over 30 years, the plan would cost an average of about $25 billion (in 2021 dollars) per year for the lower end of the Navy’s range and up to $33 billion per year for the upper end, an increase of 10 percent to 43 percent compared with recent shipbuilding budgets.

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