Letter from Washington Counting ships the Navy cannot afford

摘要

The President's proposed 2021 defense budget (PresBud) has been delivered to Congress and released to the public, requesting just over $700 billion for the Defense Department and the services.The budget remains essentially flat, although the Navy aspires to a goal of 355 ships. Even if the Navy wanted to reduce that number to something more realistic, it has been boxed in the by the administration, which has directed that 355 remain the number. In fact, it wants the Navy to get there in ten years. I said in my last letter from Washington that a new Force Structure assessment (FSA) was imminent. But, so far, we're stuck with the 2016 FSA, on which that 355 number is based. If the Navy must stand up to the increasingly capable Russian and Chinese fleets, 355 almost seems too low. As of this writing, a new FSA has not been released.