Page 17: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2006)

May 2006 17

By Edward Lundquist

That the U.S. Navy needs to maintain its current fleet to the most modern stan- dards, and recapitalize it to provide the right fleet for the future, seems obvious.

But the investment has been uneven over the years, victimized by competing priorities within the Navy and the other services.

Chief of Naval Operations, Adm.

Mike Mullen, thinks it makes sense to the Navy and to the industry to make a serious commitment to shipbuilding.

The Navy will grow from the current 289 ships to 313, with an average of $13.4 billion per year (in FY05 dollars) invested in shipbuilding - an amount that will not be tampered with. That's about 30 percent more money than the current expenditure. The 313 ship total is not arbitrary, but the result of consid- erable study. "The analysis concluded that a fleet of about 313 ships is the force necessary to meet all of the demands, and to pace the most advanced technological chal- lengers well into the future, with an acceptable level of risk. The Navy expects to achieve this force structure by FY 2012," Mullen testified to

Congress in March.

It isn't just the number of ships, or the amount of money, that is truly signifi- cant here. True, both reflect a serious commitment. The real news is how the

Navy wants to stick to the requirements and stabilize the shipbuilding workload.

Critics say the Navy's plan is too opti- mistic. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the House Armed Services

Committee Projection forces subcom- mittee, speaking at a Center for

Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) briefing at the U.S. Capitol on

March 30, said that Navy shipbuilding calls for "far more platforms than we will be able to procure."

Later that day, at a hearing, Bartlett said "the money is not there unless we [in Congress] raise the top line," refer- ring to the Navy's shipbuilding budget.

Secretary of the Navy Donald C.

Winter has testified to Congress earlier this year that "The FY 2007 budget for shipbuilding ensures that tomorrow's fleet will remain the world's preeminent.

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The Navy has a Shipbuilding Plan … and are Sticking to It

Eye on the Navy "The practice around town has been for far too long, to pay other bills by robbing the shipbuilding accounts. We're not going to do that any- more. We're going to fence the funds we put in there, we're going to get a handle on requirements and we're going to stabilize the whole process. "

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chief of Naval

Operations, to the Surface Navy

Association National Symposium, Hyatt

Regency, Arlington, Va., January 10, 2006

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