American Shipbuilding Association

CONTACT:
Cynthia L. Brown
202-544-8170

Washington, DC -- The Pentagon is studying away the Navy’s requirement for a 375-ship Navy” Cynthia Brown, President of the American Shipbuilding Association, said today in response to news reports that an experimental project, currently under study, which envisions fresh crews being rotated to forward deployed ships, will allow the Navy to meet its global commitments with a smaller fleet. 

Under criticism from Congress that the Department of Defense and Navy are under-funding the national security requirement for naval ships, senior Pentagon officials have announced that a new round of studies will demonstrate the Nation requires a much smaller fleet than all other requirement studies have indicated. The Nation’s naval fleet is already 15 ships below the minimum requirement of a 310-ship Navy outlined by the Department of Defense in the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review. The fleet is expected to sink to 200 ships over the next decade due to the historical low rate of production. 

“This is typical Washington gobbledygook,” said Ms. Brown. “When you don’t like your own study’s answer, you study it some more until you “get it right”.

A review of recent studies, Brown noted found the following:

• The 2000 SECDEF report to Congress called for a 360-ship Navy built around 15 CVNS
• The 2001 Joint Chiefs of Staff Submarine Force Structure Study called for 78 Attack Submarines
• The 2001 Navy Surface Combatant Force Structure Study called for 135 multi-mission Surface Combatants
• The Navy’s input to DOD for the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review called for a 360-400 ship Navy
• The Marine Corps long standing 3 MEB Lift Requirement calls for 15 Expeditionary Ready Groups
• The Navy’s 2003 Report to Congress called for a 375-ship Navy

“It is troubling that DOD has elected to respond to the growing concern in Congress by studying the requirement away rather than working to meet it”, Brown said.