Author Topic: Courtney: Trump plan to cut sub production ‘dead on arrival’  (Read 227 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Navy Times 2/10/2020

 HARTFORD, Conn. — A key Connecticut congressman said Monday that President Donald Trump’s proposal to reduce funding for building Virginia-class submarines is “dead on arrival.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, whose district includes the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, said the $19.9 billion allocated in Trump’s $4.8 trillion budget plan is nearly 17 percent lower than current funding levels and is proposing to build the fewest number of “combatant vessels” for the U.S. Navy in a decade.

"This weak, pathetic request for eight ships — of which two are tugboats — is not only fewer ships than 2020, but fewer ships than the Navy told us last year it planned for 2021," said Courtney, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.

"I can say with complete certainty that, like so much of the rest of the President's budget, it is dead on arrival," he said.

Courtney said experts have warned Congress year after year about the need for greater submarine capabilities, as China and Russia increase their undersea activity and the American fleet faces an impending 20 percent reduction.

More: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/02/11/courtney-trump-plan-to-cut-sub-production-dead-on-arrival/