Navy scraps 500-ship fleet in 2021 budget; shipbuilding request drops, and asks for only one new destroyer
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy’s modest shipbuilding request 2022 DOD budget shows the Pentagon has walked away from the 500-ship Navy, a senior defense analyst says. USNI News reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
14 June 2021 -- The 2022 shipbuilding request in the DOD budget is seeking $22.6 billion -- a 3 percent drop from the 2021 shipbuilding total. The move shows the Pentagon has abandoned the Trump administration’s plan for an expanded Navy, says retired Army Maj. Gen. John Ferrari, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington.
Ferrari was referring to the Battle Force 2045 plan that proposed to expand the fleet beyond the Navy’s 355-ship goal set in 2016. The plan envisioned an aggressive shipbuilding program and added a range of unmanned vessels to the fleet’s size.
Todd Harrison, a budget specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says Battle Force 2045 was not fundable because it never considered the budget impact on the other services. Some expect Congress to restore funding for a second Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and a Capitol Hill battle over divesting legacy systems.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
