S8 Ep189: The "355 Plus" Fleet Initiative and the Ford-Class "Edsel": Colleague Thomas Modly outlines his "355 Plus" fleet initiative and efforts to modernize naval education for a cognitive age as Acting Secretary, explaining his "Gray Zone" management priorities
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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| 0:35.0 | This is CBSI in the world. |
| 0:36.7 | I'm John Batchel with Tom Maudley. |
| 0:38.5 | His new book is Vectors, Heroes, Villains, and Heartbreak on the Bridge of the USS Navy. |
| 0:43.3 | Tom is now Acting Secretary of the Navy, an esteemed post with challenges in all directions, |
| 0:49.7 | and all we can do is mention a few of them. |
| 0:52.2 | First, what is 355 plus, Tom? What did that mean then? |
| 0:57.5 | Yes, well, in 2016, the Navy commissions three different studies to look at what the future |
| 1:04.4 | force structure should look like. How many aircraft carriers, how many destroyers, how many |
| 1:09.1 | frigates, et cetera, what that mix would look like |
| 1:11.1 | and how many they should have or set as a North Star to try and achieve. |
| 1:16.7 | At that particular time, we had about 275 ships that had been a significant decline from the 600 |
| 1:22.9 | ship Navy under President Reagan and Secretary Lehman. |
| 1:27.2 | And we were looking at a threat environment that was becoming far more complex and challenging |
| 1:32.2 | with the Chinese Navy and others threatening ours. |
| 1:36.5 | So they did these studies and they focused in on one that suggested that the best force mix |
| 1:43.1 | was 355 ships. And so that then became part of where they were |
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