https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated December 21, 2022
Navy Next-Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS) Program:
Background and Issues for Congress
Introduction
The Navy’s Next-Generation Logistics Ship (NGLS)
program envisages procuring new medium-sized at-sea
resupply ships for the Navy. The Navy’s proposed FY2023
budget requests $3.0 million in research and development
funding for the program. The Navy’s five-year (FY2023-
FY2027) shipbuilding plan programs the procurement of
the first NGLS in FY2026 at a cost of $150.0 million and
the second in FY2027 at a cost of $156.0 million.
Terminology
The Navy’s Combat Logistics Force (CLF) ships, also
called underway replenishment (UNREP) ships, are
logistics ships that resupply the Navy’s combatant ships
(e.g., aircraft carriers, surface combatants, and amphibious
ships) at sea, so that the combatant ships can continue
operating without having to return to port.
The Navy’s current CLF ships include oilers (TAOs), dry
cargo and ammunition ships (TAKEs), and fast combat
support ships (TAOEs). In these designations, T means the
ship is operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC)
with a mostly civilian crew, A means auxiliary ship, O
means oiler, K means cargo, and E means ammunition (i.e.,
explosives). (In some documents, TAO, TAKE, etc. are
typed as T-AO, T-AKE, etc.) These CLF ships are large
auxiliary ships.
Anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities aim to create a
defended area around a country that in time of conflict
would be a “no-go zone” for opposing military forces.
Operational concepts are general approaches for how to use
military forces for achieving certain objectives. Fleet
architecture refers to the types and mix of ships that make
up a navy.
New Fleet Architecture and
Operational Concepts
To more effectively counter the improving A2/AD
capabilities of China in particular, the Navy wants to begin
shifting to a new, more distributed fleet architecture that is
to include a reduced proportion of larger ships and an
increased proportion of smaller ships. This more distributed
fleet architecture is intended to support a new Navy and
Marine Corps operational concept for countering adversary
A2/AD forces, called Distributed Maritime Operations
(DMO), and an associated new Marine Corps operational
concept called Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations
(EABO).
DMO aims at avoiding a situation in which an adversary
could defeat U.S. naval forces by concentrating its attacks
on a relatively small number of large, high-value U.S. Navy
ships. Under EABO, relatively small Marine Corps units
armed with anti-ship cruise missiles and other weapons
would hop on and off islands in the Western Pacific to
conduct “shoot-and-scoot” operations against adversary
ships. For more on DMO, EABO, and the Navy’s more
distributed fleet architecture, see CRS Report RL32665,
Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background
and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS
Report R46374, Navy Light Amphibious Warship (LAW)
Program: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald
O'Rourke.
Logistics Ships Currently Being Procured
The Navy is currently procuring new John Lewis (TAO-
205) class oilers (Figure 1), which are large CLF ships.
When procured at a rate of one ship per year, TAO-205s
have a currently estimated procurement cost of more than
$700 million per ship. For more on the TAO-205 program,
see CRS Report R43546, Navy John Lewis (TAO-205)
Class Oiler Shipbuilding Program: Background and Issues
for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke.
Next-Generation Logistics Ship
(NGLS) Program
Basic Concept for Ship
The NGLS program, also known as the Next-Generation
Medium Logistics Ship program, was initiated in the
Navy’s FY2021 budget submission. The program envisages
building a new class of CLF ships (or a family of CLF ship
designs) that would be smaller and individually less
expensive to procure than the Navy’s current CLF ships.
Figure 1 shows a sketch of a Navy notional NGLS design
concept.
Figure 1. Navy Notional NGLS Design Concept
Source: U.S. Navy information paper, June 14, 2022, received by
CRS from Navy Office of Legislative Affairs, June 16, 2022. The Navy
states that the rendering “was developed by the Navy as an
illustration of the indicative design that supports the refuel, rearm
and resupply missions currently contemplated by the NGLS program.
This illustration does not represent the final NGLS design.”
Like the Navy’s current CLF ships, NGLSs would be
operated by MSC with mostly civilian crews. The Navy’s
FY2023 30-year (FY2023-FY2052) shipbuilding plan
refers to the NGLS as a TAOL (also typed as T-AOL),
