{"id":1969516,"date":"2023-07-11T11:16:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T15:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-years-of-decay-and-neglect-crippled-americas-navy\/"},"modified":"2023-07-11T11:18:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T15:18:37","slug":"how-years-of-decay-and-neglect-crippled-americas-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-years-of-decay-and-neglect-crippled-americas-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Years of decay and neglect have severely crippled America&#8217;s Navy."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Fhow-years-of-decay-and-neglect-crippled-americas-navy%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=1969516&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 class=\"article-content\">\n<p>For centuries, it has been a critical objective for any global power to maintain a battle-ready navy. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt gave perhaps the best argument for American sea power during his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/millercenter.org\/the-presidency\/presidential-speeches\/december-2-1902-second-annual-message\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">second annual address to Congress<\/a>. While evoking elements of his \u201cbig stick diplomacy,\u201d Roosevelt signified the influence naval powers hold in cultivating peace among nations, stating <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cA good Navy is not a provocative of war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the decades that followed, the U.S. Navy proved itself instrumental in fulfilling Roosevelt\u2019s sentiments and establishing the U.S. as a leading global power. During World War II, U.S. naval forces were critical in liberating the Pacific from imperial Japan. The Navy also continued its peacekeeping role throughout the Cold War,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.navy.mil\/research\/library\/online-reading-room\/title-list-alphabetically\/n\/the-navy-in-the-cold-war-era-1945-1991.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">preventing<\/a>\u00a0potentially disastrous conflicts in the Taiwan Strait, assisting U.S. allies during the Korean War, and stymying Soviet aggression, to name just a few.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1439584415\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6fc0ca8d1b0b2e5a2e3729033db6df7f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6fc0ca8d1b0b2e5a2e3729033db6df7f\"><\/div>\n<p>In the years since, however, America\u2019s fleet has suffered tremendous setbacks. Failure to maintain a sizeable fleet and meet shipbuilding targets have become growing issues that \u2014 despite their importance to U.S. national security \u2014 have been ignored by large swaths of America\u2019s political class. If left unaddressed, these problems threaten to upend America\u2019s maritime power. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Fleet and Shipbuilding Today<\/h2>\n<p>The size of the U.S. fleet has shrunk considerably following the end of the Cold War, with ship retirements outpacing production of new vessels. In 1991, for instance, the Navy was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.navy.mil\/research\/histories\/ship-histories\/us-ship-force-levels.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comprised<\/a> of 529 ships. By 2001, that number had shrunk to 316 and would continue to drop to a staggering 271 vessels by 2015.<\/p>\n<p>As of Monday, the Navy has a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2023\/07\/10\/usni-news-fleet-and-marine-tracker-july-10-2023?ct=t(USNI_NEWS_DAILY)&#038;mc_cid=ab2af07b5d&#038;mc_eid=3f07bd8338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">total battle force<\/a> of approximately 300 ships, still substantially short of the 355 <a href=\"https:\/\/sgp.fas.org\/crs\/weapons\/RL32665.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">required<\/a> by federal law.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not just the size of the Navy that\u2019s decreased. Since World War II, the U.S. has also witnessed a steady decline in the number of public shipyards responsible for maintaining a battle-ready fleet. At the time, the U.S. operated 11 public shipyards, slightly more than the typical seven to nine the country possessed in the century preceding the global conflict. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-07\/BG3511.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Heritage Foundation<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-years-of-decay-and-neglect-crippled-americas-navy\/\" title=\"Years of decay and neglect have severely crippled America's Navy.\">public yards stopped ship construction altogether<\/a> and shifted their focus towards solely maintenance work in the early 1960s. It was during this time that private shipyards were found to be 30 to 40 percent more efficient at constructing new vessels than public ones, leading to the closure of three public shipyards in the years that followed. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a882d98b2f24c2ffac62bad4185c0980 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a882d98b2f24c2ffac62bad4185c0980\"><\/div>\n<p>Legislation passed in 1988 further required the military to reevaluate the need for many of its existing installations, leading to the closure of four more public shipyards and leaving the Navy with its remaining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navsea.navy.mil\/Home\/Shipyards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">four<\/a> \u2014 all of which have <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2021\/11\/11\/navy-issues-contracts-in-first-step-toward-8b-to-rebuild-two-public-shipyards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">required<\/a> modernization upgrades for years. <\/p>\n<p>As of 2020, the Navy also contracts with at least <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-07\/BG3511.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">22 private shipyards<\/a> for shipbuilding and other maintenance-related work.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Root Problems<\/h2>\n<p>So why is it that it\u2019s been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/20-years-of-naval-trends-guarantee-a-fy2023-shipbuilding-plan-failure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 20 years<\/a>\u00a0since the Navy last met its shipbuilding targets? According to Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow for The Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center for National Defense, one of the biggest factors hindering the Navy\u2019s shipbuilding apparatus is an inconsistent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/india-and-china-foreign-ministers-hold-awkward-3-hour-meeting-in-new-delhi\/\" title=\"India and China Foreign Ministers Hold Awkward, 3-Hour Meeting in New Delhi\">long-term vision<\/a> of how to grow the fleet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInconsistencies are constantly changing,\u201d Sadler told The Federalist. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pinkerton-bidens-green-new-deal-china-first\/\" title=\"Pinkerton: Biden's Green New Deal = China First\u00a0\">long-range plan<\/a> for the Navy \u201ckind of follows the whims of one administration to the next too often.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-117254d73b9476abc7235d06419742c0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-117254d73b9476abc7235d06419742c0\"><\/div>\n<p>In May, the Biden administration released its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govexec.com\/media\/navy_2024_shipbuilding_plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-u-s-navys-new-long-range-shipbuilding-plan\/\" title=\"The U.S. Navy\u2019s New Long-Range Shipbuilding Plan\">long-range shipbuilding plan<\/a> for fiscal year 2024<\/a>, which Sadler previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/defense\/commentary\/long-range-navy-shipbuilding-plan-fails-multiple-levels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> \u201cgrossly understate[s] how many new ships will be needed to ensure [U.S.] security.\u201d Further reading of the administration\u2019s plan reveals two of the three proposals put forward fail to get the Navy to its 355-ship fleet requirement. The third option wouldn\u2019t do so until 2042.<\/p>\n<p>Sadler further noted how inconsistent budgeting has also contributed to the Navy\u2019s ongoing shipbuilding shortfalls, specifically pointing to constant changes in congressional leadership and Congress\u2019s overreliance on continuing resolutions instead of a stable budget.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose two things matter [because] they send a signal to commercial naval shipbuilders who only make capital investments [such as] training new workers, building graving docks, deepening the piers, or buying new cranes \u2014 they only do that if they have an order from the Navy on-hand and that money is predictable. \u2026 [T]hey haven\u2019t been getting that signal for almost 30 years, and so commercial naval shipbuilding has atrophied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, echoed somewhat similar sentiments. In his remarks to The Federalist, Clark noted how the \u201chigh cost of manning and maintaining the current fleet\u201d is a major issue hindering the Navy\u2019s ability to grow its force.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Navy is shrinking because they\u2019re having to retire ships early\u201d due to the cost of maintaining them, Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019re having to reduce the number [of ships] they buy because they don\u2019t have enough money to buy more, and they know that every new ship they buy is another ship in the fleet that has to be maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clark went on to explain that the shipbuilding industry\u2019s difficulty in recruiting and training workers to man the shipyards is also a notable issue contributing to the Navy\u2019s shipbuilding shortfalls. In 2019, a U.S. Naval Institute\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2019\/06\/21\/shipbuilding-industry-struggles-to-recruit-and-retain-workforce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a>\u00a0highlighted these concerns among industry leaders, who pointed to factors such as \u201can aging workforce, lack of stability in the contract workload,\u201d and young Americans\u2019 lack of interest in shipyard work as reasons for the increasing problem.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible Solutions <\/h2>\n<p>While the Navy\u2019s shipbuilding woes can\u2019t be fixed with the snap of a finger, there are potential solutions that may alleviate some of the branch\u2019s existing issues. <\/p>\n<p>According to Sadler, one possible remedy to the inconsistencies regarding the Navy\u2019s long-term strategy and budgeting problems is for Congress to legislate such issues separate from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA \u2014 which Congress is currently considering for the 2024 fiscal year \u2014 provides funding for all U.S. military branches and includes monies for naval shipbuilding. Rather than tie the Navy\u2019s critical infrastructure to the NDAA, Sadler recommends creating a separate \u201cNaval Act\u201d to give the branch\u2019s issues the attention they deserve.<\/p>\n<p>With the NDAA, \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of politicking and inner-service rivalries that\u201d get in the way, Sadler said. \u201cA separate Naval Act [would focus on] the ships that the Navy and the administration agree they need to build that are currently in construction, and provide the funding\u201d for future shipbuilding. <\/p>\n<p>Sadler went on to explain how such an approach is more fiscally sensible, as it shifts the risk of potential cost increases due to inflation from U.S. taxpayers to contracted shipyards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe used to buy [ships] upfront [at] full price. We\u2019d say, \u2018Here\u2019s the money for a ship, go build me a ship, get it to me by this time.\u2019 It was very simple, very straightforward,\u201d Sadler said. \u201cYou want to be able to get the predictability and you want to get the money into the shipyard so that they can make the capital investments to grow their workforce and to grow their shipyard building capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To \u201cdemand the possession of a first-class navy,\u201d as Roosevelt argued back in 1902, is not a luxury but an imperative.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-99b12666f446cbaaab9663c3e8df245a fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-99b12666f446cbaaab9663c3e8df245a\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>global nations. He emphasized the necessity of a strong navy to protect American interests and promote stability worldwide. Roosevelt&#8217;s speech highlighted the pivotal role of naval power in maintaining peace, making it a crucial objective for any major global power throughout history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1969517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1969516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969516","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\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1969516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1969517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1969516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1969516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}