{"id":1359637,"date":"2022-03-05T07:50:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T12:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1359637"},"modified":"2022-03-05T07:52:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T12:52:54","slug":"u-s-navy-says-fight-with-china-is-likely-in-the-2020s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-navy-says-fight-with-china-is-likely-in-the-2020s\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Navy Says Fight With China Is Likely in the 2020s"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-navy-says-fight-with-china-is-likely-in-the-2020s%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1359637&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ZFOGLYEN2VBPLB3FK3CR573VOA.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy sees the 2020s as presenting the \u201cpeak risk\u201d for China making a move against Taiwan, driving the service\u2019s effort to prioritize readiness over fleet size, the vice chief of naval operations told lawmakers Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Adm. William Lescher told the House Armed Services Committee China clearly remains the pacing threat for the U.S. military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cThe Navy brings a strong view that the decade of concern is 2020 \u2014 and in some respects, that\u2019s not a universal view in the department, but we consistently believe and have thought that that\u2019s the decade that we see of peak risk and that we\u2019re going to be ready for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">His remarks echoed those of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2022\/03\/03\/kendall-despite-russian-invasion-china-remains-militarys-top-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">who spoke at a conference<\/a> in Florida earlier in the day. Kendall told the audience that, \u201cdespite current events, the pacing challenge remains China.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Lescher told lawmakers \u201cthe fundamental dilemma of every budget submission\u201d comes down to \u201ccurrent readiness versus future overmatch,\u201d but said concerns about China trying to invade Taiwan have led the Navy to prioritize current readiness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">In its budget request for this fiscal year, the Navy asked to decommission 15 ships, including seven cruisers. This drew the ire of many HASC members, who argued that if the Navy was going to fight China this decade it needed a larger fleet this decade \u2014 rather than divesting cruisers today and eventually reinvesting that money into unmanned surface combatants or other technologies still under development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">But Lescher contended there\u2019s no contradiction in the Navy\u2019s fiscal 2022 budget and its expectation that China is most likely to attack Taiwan this decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">He said the Navy went through a number of analytic efforts to determine the size and composition of the force it would need to defeat China. Critical is the Navy\u2019s ability to do certain things: send long-range fires down range, maneuver in the adversary\u2019s weapons engagement zone, operate ships without needing frequent resupply in a contested logistics environment, and defend against incoming missiles through hard-kill and soft-kill defenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">He did not specifically address why cutting the cruisers made sense for a near-term fight, though Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told Defense News last month the cruisers were eating up time and resources the Navy didn\u2019t have. With the cruiser modernization program facing significant challenges and cruisers experiencing maintenance emergencies during training and on deployment, Gilday said tens of millions of dollars were being rerouted to repair them instead of paying for important fleet training, maintenance and operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Rep. Rob Wittman, the top Republican on the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee, remains skeptical of the Navy\u2019s approach. In opening remarks at the hearing, he said it was \u201cdisheartening\u201d to see a perceived lack of urgency from the Navy in preparing to deter or fight China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cLast year, the Navy requested only one destroyer, no amphibs, and proposed to retire seven large surface combatants whose firepower exceeded that of the entire British Navy. The Navy provided a \u201830-year shipbuilding plan\u2019 that was only good for one year,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Navy submitted a shipyard recapitalization plan with little financial backing. And the Navy continues to underman our surface navy who currently is lacking over 5,000 sailors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 jQOUvm body-paragraph body-paragraph\">He noted Congress pushed back against most of these initiatives, but said their very proposal \u201cunsettles our allies and unnerves the industrial base that craves real leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"default__Wrapper-cy7r53-1 gEopBn\">\n<p class=\"default__BioWrapper-cy7r53-0 jmAmdA a-body2\">Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs, and budgets. She has reported from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she\u2019s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy sees the 2020s as presenting the \u201cpeak risk\u201d for China making a move against Taiwan, driving the service\u2019s effort to prioritize readiness over fleet size,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}