President Donald Trump last week announced a major push to improve the shipbuilding industry in the United States to better support the Navy, but top administration officials testified before Congress this week about the challenges that initiative faces.
Trump said last week in his speech to a joint session of Congress that the U.S. "used to make so many ships. We don't make them any more very much, but we're going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact."
However, Brett Seidle, the Navy's acting acquisition chief, said this week that U.S. shipbuilders face numerous challenges, including "supply chain disruptions," the "atrophy of our manufacturing industrial base," and "inconsistent industry investment across the shipbuilding industrial base."
"Deliveries are approximately one to four years late and costs continue to rise faster than overall inflation," Seidle said in written testimony sent to the House Armed Services seapower panel for a hearing on Tuesday. "These challenges are shared across the nuclear and conventional shipbuilding communities with both Navy and Industry sharing responsibility."
Shelby Oakley, the acquisition director for the Government Accountability Office, also noted in her written testimony that "the Navy is likely to continue creating conditions where overall fleet capability falls short of expectations and needs" unless there is "a thorough retooling of its processes."
She also noted that the Defense Department and Navy invested $6 billion "to improve the industrial base" between 2014 and 2023 and expect to spend an additional $12 billion over the next three years, but "have yet to fully assess whether" this investment is "having the intended effect."
Bloomberg previously reported that the Chinese Navy has surpassed the U.S. with more than 400 ships and the third-largest aviation force with 3,100 aircraft.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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