No New Ships: Trump Cuts Navy Shipbuilding, Aircraft Procurement

– Breaking Defense – Despite his campaign pledge of a 350-ship fleet, President Trump’s first budget cuts Navy shipbuilding and aircraft procurement below what was enacted in 2017, documents released today reveal. Despite Trump’s criticism of President Obama’s defense plans, this budget sticks with Obama’s shipbuilding plan for 2018: eight ships.

Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Set to Answer Lingering Navy Acquisition Questions

– USNI News – Since the last Pentagon budget request 15 months ago there’s been a presidential election, a seven-month continuing resolution, a supplemental spending bill, promises from the new administration for a military spending spree, vows from inside the Pentagon to rebuild readiness and multiple studies looking at what a future naval fleet should look like.

In the churn leading up to this week’s release of the Fiscal Year 2018 budget request to Congress, questions still remain on the Navy’s acquisition and readiness plans. The following is a list of important policy and acquisition issues that Navy officials have declined to comment on but have assured USNI News and the public that answers would be found in the budget request.

U.S. Admiral Richardson: 355-Ship Navy is “Insufficient” (Thanks to Russia and China)

– National Interest – With current technology, even a 355-ship United States Navy will not be sufficient to meet the threats of tomorrow. Indeed, the conclusion of a new Navy white paper authored by the chief of naval operations is that not only will tomorrow’s fleet have to be larger, it will have to become far more capable far more quickly than any of the recent fleet design studies have indicated.

Beyond the San Hai: The Challenge of China’s Blue-Water Navy

– Center for New American Security – The United States has enjoyed largely uncontested naval supremacy across the blue waters, or open oceans, for decades. The rapid emergence of an increasingly global People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) suggests that this era will soon come to a close. China’s ability to conduct power projection and amphibious operations around the world will become a fundamental fact of politics in the near future, with signi cant consequences for the United States and its allies, all of which need to begin pre- paring for a “risen China” rather than a “rising China,” especially in the realm of maritime security. China’s expanding naval capabilities have implications that are di cult to grasp, and more importantly, consequences that will be impossible to ignore, and it is therefore all the more necessary for U.S. and allied planners to reckon with it now.