The Navy is failing to build warships on time or on budget.

Putting campaign donations and local employment interests above national security, members of Congress have been unwilling to take bold action to fix things. An absence of skilled workers, inefficient unions, and COVID-19-related challenges have further complicated matters. The next president and Congress thus face a choice. Either they accept China’s dominance of the western Pacific Ocean or they do the once unthinkable and appropriate funds to build warships in the dockyards of allied nations such as South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom.