A House subcommittee Thursday recommended adding five ships to the eight vessels in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request, in order to more quickly get to a 355-ship Navy.
The subcommittee’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act “builds on the eight ships requested by the administration and adds an additional five ships,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.
Specifically the House proposal calls for one additional destroyer, two littoral combat ships, one amphibious dock landing ship, and one expeditionary support base. Trump’s budget requested one aircraft carrier, two destroyers, two submarines and one littoral combat ship, although the Navy it plans on adding a second LCS, which would bump up Trump’s request to nine ships.
The House bill also includes additional funding to speed up the future acquisition of aircraft carriers and submarines.
“Building aircraft carriers faster than one every five years will allow our nation to realize the 12 aircraft carriers we need,” Wittman said.
The markup would also make it a matter of law that the U.S. Navy must have no fewer that 355 ships.
It also provides multi-year procurement authority for 15 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for the next five years at a rate of three destroyers a year, and 13 Virginia-class attack submarines for the next five years at a minimum rate of two submarines per year.
“It’s definitely not a stand-pat mark, a rubber stamp of what came over on May 23,” said Ranking Member Joe Courtney, D-Conn.
“A 355-ship Navy is warranted, based on all the strategic analysis, it was not a wish list,” Courtney said.
“We are still basically relying on a legacy fleet and there is just really an urgent need to recapitalize.”
As of Thursday, the Navy had 276 of what it calls “deployable battle force ships.”
