The Navy Is Still Hoping Its Technological Advantage Will Make up for a Smaller Fleet The Navy is expected to grow, but will keep to find ways to keep its edge as China builds ships faster than America does. Can an increasingly high tech, heavily armed and networked Navy achieve technical and tactical superiority over larger sized near-peer rivals? Specifically, could the U.S. Navy retain a significant measure of advantage over a potentially larger Chinese Navy? This may be the thinking among some U.S. war planners now analyzing future Naval Force Structure questions. Essentially, could a slightly smaller, yet still very large U.S. Navy employ large numbers of drone and heavily armed warships enabled by a new generation of long-range sensors, precision weaponry and multi-domain air-surface-undersea connectivity?