America's First Step toward Reclaiming Naval Power
USS John C. Stennis in the Arabian Sea. Flickr/U.S. Navy
Robert C. O'Brien
The Senate Armed Services Committee, under the leadership of chairman John McCain, has taken up President-elect Trump’s challenge to make America great again and rebuked President Obama in his final days in office. The committee’s white paper, “Restoring American Power: Recommendations for the FY 2018-FY 2022 Defense Budget,” was released this week. McCain and the committee lay out a solid series of recommendations to strengthen the nation’s armed forces after the Obama administration’s defense-sequestration program that hollowed out the military. While the white paper touches on topics that range from the clear necessity of setting aside the 2011 Budget Control Act to the best approach to cyber security, the section dealing with the Navy is both timely and critical.
As I wrote in Politico magazine in February 2015, the Navy is in crisis, as the fleet is simply too small to fulfill the missions it has been assigned by our national leadership. Recognizing this reality, the SASC wants an increase of $98 billion in the Navy’s budget over the next five years that will yield at least eighteen more ships than that Obama administration’s current plan. Giving heed to President-elect Trump’s recent conversations with leaders of defense manufacturers, “Restoring American Power” also calls for a fiscally prudent “high-low” mixed procurement strategy by purchasing 167 additional tactical aircraft, many of them fourth-generation planes.
Three of the committee’s recommendations deserve special notice: the need for a new small surface combatant, the need recommendation for a new class of aircraft carrier, and the need to quickly bring an unmanned aerial strike platform to the carrier air wing in order to extend its range and lethality.
Source URL (retrieved on January 19, 2017):
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/americas-first-step-toward-reclaiming-naval-power-19089
