Maine Senators Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) are “deeply concerned” with reports the Defense Department may reduce planned ship procurement in the fiscal year 2021 budget request, according to a recent letter.
“We write to express our strong support for a 355-ship Navy and to urge continued support from the Department for a robust shipbuilding budget,” the senators wrote Jan. 6 in a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Collins is a member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and King a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
They noted recent news reports that the Department may propose a budget plan that would have a smaller fleet by 2025 than currently exists, despite the FY 2018 defense authorization act that made it the policy of the government to achieve a 355-ship Navy after the December 2016 Force Structure Assessment called for the same. The Navy currently has about 293 deployable battle force ships.
The reports say the Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget are considering having the Navy cut five Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers from the planned 12 in procurement over the next five years, retiring Ticonderoga-class cruisers faster than planned by 2025 from the expected 13 to nine, decommissioning the first four Littoral Combat Ships in 2021, and decommissioning three dock landing ships to save costs.
Overall, these cuts would lower the total fleet size to 287 ships despite the goal of 355.
“Contrary to this established policy and identified national security need, media reports suggest the Department may propose a budget plan that would actually result in a smaller fleet in 2025 than we have today,” Collins and King wrote.
They focused on the proposed destroyer budget cuts and called DDG-51s “truly the workhorses of the Navy worldwide, conducting freedom of navigation missions in the South China Sea, leading maritime security patrols in the North Atlantic, and deterring Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf.
The senators noted the new Flight III destroyers will have an improved air and missile defense radar for improved defense capabilities and the recently enacted FY 2020 defense appropriations bill included funds for three new destroyers and $390 million in long lead materials to support construction of three other destroyers for FY 2021.
“In short, we need more of these ships in the fleet of the future, not fewer.”
The senators also expressed concern about how these changes would impact the shipbuilding industrial base, arguing portions of the base could be at risk without “consistent and continuous commitment to steady acquisition profiles.”
“We need to ensure stability in our industrial base and proposed cutbacks would threaten both our security and our economy,” they added.
The DDG-51 destroyers are built by General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works [GD] based in Maine and Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss.,
Collins and King said they will keep supporting a larger fleet and expect larger congressional support for shipbuilding along the lines of the FY 2020 defense appropriations bill to continue past FY 2021.
“As you continue to develop and finalize the Department’s FY 2021 budget request, we urge you to reverse course from cutbacks to shipbuilding plans that may be under deliberation and to support a 355-ship Navy,” the senators wrote.
The letter was also copied to Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly and Acting White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.