Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Monday pushed back against criticism on the campaign trail that the sea service does not have enough ships to keep the country safe.
“The Navy’s current number of ships is often bandied about as political semantics, doing a disservice to our sailors, Marines, shipbuilders, industry and to America,” Mabus said in prepared remarks at a ship naming ceremony in Detroit, where he announced that a new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will be named after former Sen. Carl Levin. “These statements embolden our potential adversaries, undermine the confidence of our allies, and frankly, they are completely wrong.
“Most importantly, they distract folks from recognizing the reality of just how much our nation relies on having those gray hulls on the horizon,” he continued.
Mabus points out that in the seven years prior to his term as secretary, the Navy put 41 ships under contract. In the seven years since he’s taken over, however, Mabus said the service will have put 84 ships under contract.
He said this proves that the fleet is growing, and pointed to places across the globe where the Navy is engaged, from the freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea to launching strikes against the Islamic State to transporting Marines to respond to the Ebola crisis.
Republican presidential candidates have spent months saying that the military has become a weak institution that can no longer defend the country.
“Our military is a disaster,” Trump said at a Republican debate in January.
Those criticisms have often been levied at the number of ships, both because it takes more time to build up the Navy than a ground force in the Army or Marines and because the number of ships is an easily quantifiable measurement of force.
Mabus defended his service from those criticisms during the ship-naming ceremony for Levin, calling the Michigan Democrat “one of the most influential members of the Senate in Washington from either party,” in prepared remarks.
“In the Navy, per traditional ship-naming convention, our destroyers are named after heroes,” Mabus said in the prepared remarks. “As a champion for this nation, I know personally, as so many of you do, that Carl Levin has been a true hero to so many.”
He also said the senator shares several traits with his namesake ship, such as being a “workhorse” and an “attack dog.”
