A draft of the Quadrennial Defense Review recommends accelerating the Littoral Combat Ship program and endorses other initiatives -- such as a new riverine force -- that Navy officials have been discussing in recent months.

Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are leading separate teams to produce two different LCS designs, both of which are under construction now. While the Navy originally contemplated building two of each design for the first flight of ships, the service now plans to build a total of 13 for the first flight, according to the Pentagon operational test and evaluation directorate's fiscal year 2005 report.

The draft QDR, which was obtained by InsideDefense.com, recommends a “larger” Navy with 11 carrier strike groups that recapitalizes the fleet, improves affordability and provides stability for the shipbuilding industry. For example, the Navy should start building two attack submarines annually no later than FY-12 at a price of $2 billion each, it states. While the draft QDR does not specify a target number of ships, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen has his own plan, which advocates a 313-ship fleet, up from 281 ships today.

The Navy also should buy the “first eight” Maritime Prepositioning Force Future ships, according to the draft QDR. One MPF(F) squadron would be comprised of 14 ships: two LHA Replacement large-deck amphibious ships, one LHD large-deck amphibious ship, three T-AKE cargo ships, three Large Medium-Speed Roll-On/Roll-Off (LMSR) cargo ships, three Mobile Landing Platform ships and two legacy “dense-pack” MPF ships taken from existing squadrons. But the draft QDR does not name what the “first eight” MPF(F) ships would be.

For now, the Marine Corps plans to have three maritime prepositioning squadrons: one will be the MPF(F) and two will be the existing squadrons, James Strock, seabasing integration division director at Marine Corps Combat Development Command, said earlier this month at the Surface Navy Association's annual conference.

The draft QDR recommends a Navy riverine force for patrolling, interdiction and tactical troop transport along inland waterways. The Navy expects to stand up three riverine squads, consisting of 12 boats each. The recently stood-up Navy Expeditionary Combat Command is responsible for fielding a riverine force and getting it ready for a deployment to Iraq by early 2007.

Additionally, the draft QDR says the Navy should establish a foreign area officer program and buy command and control “fly-away” communications capabilities to support disaster relief missions, presumably an acknowledgment of the role naval forces played in responding to the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in December 2004 and last summer's Hurricane Katrina.

The Navy will increase the number of SEALs for U.S. Special Operations Command as well as increase the number of psychological operations and civil affairs specialists, the draft QDR states. The Marine Corps is also contributing Marines to SOCOM for the first time in its history; that change was announced last year. Special operations forces will use “Afloat Forward Staging Bases to provide more flexible and sustainable locations from which to operate globally,” the draft QDR adds.

Navy presence in the Pacific would grow under the QDR, which calls for at least six carriers in the theater and 60 percent of the sub force there too. The future Navy also will have capabilities for “conventional global strikes against time-sensitive targets,” the document adds. Sister publication Inside the Pentagon recently reported that the Navy plans to put conventional warheads on ballistic missiles launched from SSBN submarines, which will continue to carry nuclear ballistic missiles as well.

The draft QDR notes that the Marine Corps has realigned its force structure to produce a 12 percent increase in infantry and related intelligence support, an additional rotary-wing squadron, a one-fourth increase in light armored units, a 38 percent increase in reconnaissance capacity, one-half more Joint Fire Liaison Teams, and a 30 percent increase in Reserve intelligence force structure.

The document also says the Marine Corps will “stabilize” its end strength at 175,000 active-duty Marines and 39,000 reservists by FY-11. In the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Authorization Act, Congress authorized a 3,000 end-strength increase from 175,000 Marines to 178,000. Service officials have said they plan to use the additional 3,000 to bring infantry units up to full strength and more, especially for units that will see combat.

Gen. Robert Magnus, the Marine Corps assistant commandant, suggested last fall that end strength might even go beyond 178,000, noting that the service's contribution to SOCOM would be a factor.