House Republicans are sounding the alarm over the Navy’s long-awaited 30-year shipbuilding plan released Wednesday.
Reps. Mike Rogers of Alabama and Robert J. Wittman of Virginia, respectively the top Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee and on that panel’s naval and marine subcommittee, warn that the plan falls well short of building the fleet needed to respond to an increasingly bellicose China.
“China is the pacing threat – this is something we’ve consistently heard from our military commanders,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “However, it seems that President Biden has chosen to once again ignore his military advisors to the detriment of our Navy and Marine Corps’ readiness.”
Wednesday’s 28-page report to Congress is the Navy’s first long-range shipbuilding plan in three years after much frustration and prodding by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The plan proposes three alternatives - only one of which meets the 355-ship goal by 2045 under the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed in part to address China‘s growing navy.
Under the first two proposals, the Navy would field between 318 and 322 warships by 2045, and both assume “a budget with no real growth” going forward.
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The third option, which would expand the fleet to 363 ships by 2045, calls for $75 billion in “real growth” to the shipbuilding budget.
The Navy currently has 298 battle-force ships in its fleet. The Office of Naval Intelligence projects that China will reach 425 such ships by 2030.
Mr. Rogers and Mr. Wittman said the plans fall short of providing the Navy with the wartime capability needed to confront China.
“The Biden administration’s 30-year shipbuilding plan reduces our ability to protect our aircraft carrier strike groups, reduces Navy’s ability to eliminate an enemy’s minefield, reduces the Marine Corps ability to conduct forcible entry missions, and reduces almost 10% of our fleet’s ability to launch missiles,” the lawmakers said.
The lawmakers also called the administration out for the delay in reporting its projections to Congress.
“Most disconcerting is that the administration may have known the depths of these reductions and decided to not provide Congress with this information, hiding it with a one-year shipbuilding plan presented to Congress last year,” they said.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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