"The legislation is essential"-Davis bill seeks 375-ship fleet

Sea Power, Feb 2003

WASHINGTON REPORT

Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) has reintroduced legislation that, if approved by Congress and fully implemented by the Bush and future administrations, would rebuild the U.S. Navy to an active fleet of "at least" 375 ships and give the United States and its allies the power-projection capabilities needed "to ensure peace through strength ... throughout the 21 st century."

Citing what she described as "the urgent need to increase our current naval force structure," Davis said that her bill (HR 375-The National Naval Force Structure Policy Act) already has been endorsed by several shipbuilding and labor groups, and has received strong support from many members of Congress as well.

HR 375 "would put in place specific parameters to rebuild our naval forces." Davis said, and--in terms of ship numbers-- "would require the U.S. Navy to have no fewer than 375 vessels in active service, including 15 aircraft carrier battle groups [CVBGs] and 15 amphibious ready groups [ARGs]."

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark told Sea Power last year that he believes a fleet of 375 ships is needed for the Navy to carry out all of the requirements imposed on it by the commander in chief and the unified commanders. The members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have validated the 15 CVBG and 15 ARG numbers several times in their testimony before Congress.

To build and sustain a fleet of 375 ships, Clark also said, would require a building rate of approximately 11 ships per year for the foreseeable future, Last year, the Bush administration requested funding for only five new-construction ships. That level is less than half what the Navy needs, warned Cynthia L. Brown, president of the American Shipbuilding Association, and if continued for several more years would "perpetuate" the decline of the fleet-to only about 200 ships, if not fewer.

The administration's future-years defense plan (FYDP) projets an increase in ship-construction numbers in the outyears of the FYDP. However, as Ronald O'Rourke of the Congressional Research Service pointed out, Congress has seen "that sort of 'get well' [numbers] in the final years [of previous FYDPs] before, and ... [they] have not materialized. When I see plans like that I am reminded of what a member of Congress said a year or two ago: 'I have never lived in an outyear."'

Achieving a significant increase in the FY 2004 SCN (shipbuilding and conversion, Navy) account will be extremely difficult, if only because there are so many other defense and domestic budget priorities that must be satisfied. Nonetheless, Davis and other supporters of HR 375 have several substantive arguments on their side that might well persuade other members of Congress that the Navy's real need is probably closer to 400 ships than 375, and that any additional extension of the so-called "procurement holiday" that began during the Clinton presidency poses a clear and present danger to the U.S. homeland and to the American people.

The first and most obvious argument is that a forwarddeployed Navy is probably the best deterrent to international terrorism, both at home and overseas. The war on global terrorism, President Bush has said many times, is an open-ended one that will continue for many years, and perhaps decades.

The second argument is both political and practical. As has been demonstrated by the reluctance of several longtime U.S. allies (e.g., France, Germany. and Turkey) to join in-during the initial stages, at least-the buildup for a possible war with Iraq, the United States can no longer take for granted that air and ground bases will be available overseas for U.S. forces in future times of conflict. In many areas of the world, therefore, forward-deployed Navy CVBGs and Navy/Marine Corps ARGs would be not only the closest but also the only combatready forces immediately available to the commander in chief.

There are several additional arguments favoring major increases in SCN funding-starting this year, and continuing for the foreseeable future: (1) the probable need, within the next decade and perhaps earlier. for the Sea-Basing of U.S. forces in international waters inaccessible to terrorists; (2) the potential use of the Navy's Aegis air-defense cruisers and destroyers as the foundation of the sea-based segment of the National Missile Defense system that is a high priority of the Bush administration; and (31 the flexibility offered by dualuse "National Fleet" ships that could be used either by the Coast Guard to carry out its high-priority homeland-defense missions or, in future times of conflict, by the Navy to augment the naval forces already deployed overseas.