Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said Sept. 15 that he expects the Navy to complete a study on its future force structure later this month.
While the Navy is currently slated to boost its fleet to 308 ships by fiscal year 2021, up from 276 now, the study could call for a different figure in light of recent developments in the world, Richardson said. Those developments include the Islamic State’s emergence and Russia’s increased assertiveness in its relations with the West.
“There’s more to capability than size, but [fleet] size does matter,” Richardson told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are completing a study this month that gets at a new force structure assessment, and we’ll be ready to bring that to you very shortly.”
The CNO’s comments came two months after two other Navy officials said the study could call for an increase in the service’s requirement for 48 Virginia-class fast-attack submarines (Defense Daily, July 14, 2016).
But Richardson, who testified at a hearing on long-term budget challenges for the military services, warned that the possible return of across-the-board budget caps in fiscal year 2018 could actually shrink the Navy by costing the service about 30 ships. His counterparts in the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps offered similar dire predictions to the panel when asked about the caps, also known as sequestration.
Richardson also told lawmakers that the repeated use of continuing resolutions to temporarily fund the federal government has created uncertainty about when an annual budget will be approved and has hurt the Navy’s ability to manage its modernization programs efficiently
“This continuing resolution business really undercuts the trust and confidence that we have with our suppliers, with the industrial base,” he said. “When you disrupt that trust and confidence, when you double the amount of contracts that you have to write just to get through the year, when you prevent the ability to buy things in blocks over a long period of time, the only thing you’re doing is increasing cost, increasing time, and that translates to increasing risk to our warfighter.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) denounced the use of budget caps and long-term continuing resolutions, saying neither political party seems to be paying attention to the harm they are causing the military.
“Does anybody else listen to these hearings but us?” Graham asked rhetorically.