The Navy’s upcoming fiscal year 2018 budget request will begin to reflect the service’s new goal of expanding its fleet by dozens of ships, the chief of naval operations said Jan. 17.

The larger fleet, recommended by a recently completed study, “will inform” the FY 2018 budget and “already has” begun to do so, Adm. John Richardson said. The FY 2018 budget will be a “bridge type of effort” that will initiate a “ramp-up” to higher shipbuilding rates.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson speaks Jan. 17, 2017, at a Washington, D.C., event. (Photo by Marc Selinger/Defense Daily)
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson speaks Jan. 17, 2017, at a Washington, D.C., event. (Photo by Marc Selinger/Defense Daily)

Richardson, who spoke at a Defense One event in Washington, D.C., said the expansion will be achieved mainly by building more of the ships already under construction, including attack submarines, DDG-51 destroyers, amphibious ships and oilers. A date for the budget request’s release has not yet been revealed.

The Navy announced last month that it wants a fleet of 355 ships, up from its previous goal of 308. The Navy’s new target is only slightly above the 350 ships proposed by President-elect Donald Trump during last year’s campaign.

Calls for a larger fleet received a boost Jan. 16 from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who released a white paper advocating for more ships as part of a broader defense buildup.

“Whatever the right fleet size ultimately is, one key objective for the next five years is the same: The Navy must ramp up shipbuilding,” the white paper says. McCain said the Navy could make progress toward a bigger fleet by procuring 59 ships over the next five years, up from the 41 currently planned.

Richardson, who also discussed fighter aviation, said the Navy remains committed to achieving a mix of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35Cs and Boeing [BA] F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and does not see the Super Hornet as a replacement for the newer F-35, which is “on a completely different level than the Super Hornet.” He interprets President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of the F-35 as an attempt to get its prime contractor to lower costs, not as a sign that the program will be killed due to development problems.

“The F-35 certainly has had its trials, and we’ll see where the industrial base can come with respect to price,” Richardson said. “We need that capability, and we need to get it at the very best price for the taxpayer that we can.”

To alleviate a Navy strike fighter shortfall that is expected to grow from 29 aircraft in 2020 to about 111 aircraft in 2030, McCain proposed that the Navy buy 58 additional Super Hornets and 16 additional EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft over the next five years, “while continuing to procure the F-35C as rapidly as possible.”