The Nation Needs a Real Plan to Grow the Navy
The Department of the Navy needs a serious, strategy-driven shipbuilding plan; and Congress must provide full, consistent funding to turn that plan into real ships.
By Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA)
March 2022 Proceedings Vol. 148/3/1,429
Russia’s aggressive and intolerable invasion of Ukraine serves as a wakeup call for the United States. Russian leader Vladimir Putin invaded a free and independent democracy on the threshold of the NATO alliance. Each passing day of Russian attacks on Ukraine, and Moscow’s requests for Chinese military aid, require the United States to take a hard and clear look at the eroding deterrent value of its conventional forces—not only in Europe, but around the world. As the Biden administration prepares to release its National Defense Strategy, nuclear posture review and missile defense review, along with a delayed budget request for fiscal year 2023, the White House must acknowledge that we are at a turning point in world history. Our adversaries have unequivocally demonstrated their willingness to violate the territorial integrity of another state. We must ensure our allies and partners know U.S. promises are ironclad—the United States will defend the rules-based international system and the peace and prosperity it has generated around the world.
Investments in national defense must reflect a sober commitment to uphold U.S international obligations, counter malign efforts of our opponents, and secure a safer world for future generations. As the United States shores up the strength of the U.S. military for a degrading security environment, Congress is uniquely charged under Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution to “provide and maintain a Navy.” In this new era, our ability to project power across and under the seas must be unquestioned. The U.S. cannot afford fuzzy and ever-shifting naval shipbuilding plans that suffer during execution. The defense budget request for FY23 must be accompanied by a future years defense program and a 30-year shipbuilding plan that demonstrate a simultaneously ambitious—and realistic—approach to maintaining the primacy of U.S. naval forces.
Strategic Competition Will Not Wait for the Future Fleet
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2022/march/nation-needs-real-plan-grow-navy
