The following is a clip from a very recent article in the US...

The following is a clip from a very recent article in the US Naval Institute News.

The Navy could reach a 355-ship fleet 10 to 15 years faster than current plans allow if it extended the service life of today’s surface ships by five or 10 years each, effectively cutting in half the time it would take to complete the fleet buildup, the commander of Naval Sea Systems Command said today.

Vice Adm. Tom Moore called the plan “extremely low risk” and said most, if not all, steel-hulled ships could remain in service for 30 to 35 years or more instead of the planned 25 years for a relatively low cost.

“We’re taking a pretty close look at what it would take to get them out another five, another 10 years. And the reality is, for a steel hull, if you do the maintenance, you can get its service life out much longer,” he said at an event co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute.

“We’re taking a pretty close look at what it would take to get them out another five, another 10 years. And the reality is, for a steel hull, if you do the maintenance, you can get its service life out much longer,” he said at an event co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute.

“I think there’s great opportunity to make the investments, a relatively small investment, to keep the ships around longer than we have today. And people will say, well we’ve never really gotten a surface ship past 35 or 40 years, and I will point out all the time that we routinely take aircraft carriers to 50 years.
A process such as this would have been under consideration for years and could possibly involve Cfoam.  That it is now being spoken about publicly must mean that the decision is getting closer.  Let's hope that President Trump lasts long enough to get something done in this space.

Source:  
https://news.usni.org/2017/06/01/na...up-355-ship-buildup-by-10-15-years#more-25945