American Shipbuilding Association

DATE: January 19, 2000

CONTACT:

CRISIS AT SEA

(Washington, DC, January 19, 2000) – Cynthia L. Brown, President of the American Shipbuilding Association, today asked: “When are our national leaders going to rebuild America's Sea Power Fleet?”  Since 1987, the Nation's Sea Power Fleet has shrunk from almost 600 ships to 324 ships today, and for the past seven years the Department of Defense has budgeted for a fleet of fewer than 200 ships.  In just a few short years, America's naval fleet will drop below 300 -- irrespective of warnings from regional commanders-in-chief that the Fleet is already stretched perilously thin.

So thin, in fact, that there are not enough ships to cover the three critical strategic theaters deemed essential to our national security.  As an example, the aircraft carrier battlegroup ENTERPRISE was on station in the Mediterranean until she was sent to Iraq to deter and contain the threat there.  Consequently, when the war in Kosovo began there was no aircraft carrier battlegroup in the region.  It took two weeks into the war before the carrier battlegroup ROOSEVELT arrived from Norfolk.  Vice Admiral Dan Murphy, Commander of the Navy's Sixth Fleet, uses this analogy to describe this alarming situation: "time-sharing may be a fine way to rent a vacation home, but it's a poor way to run a Navy."

What will it take to rebuild and maintain even a minimum fleet of 300-ships?  The average life expectancy of naval ships is 30 years.  This means that a steady build rate of 10 ships per year, every year is required to maintain a 300-ship Navy.  However, the Department of Defense has only been procuring six ships a year for the past seven years.   This equates to a 32-ship shortfall, or a fleet of only 268 ships, and a budget deficit of $48 billion.  This means, rather than having to build 10 ships a year, the country must now build more than 10.  For example, if the build rate were increased to 12 ships per year, it would take 16 years to buy down the shortfall and return the fleet to even 300 ships. 

This is a crisis of huge proportions.  A 300-ship naval fleet cannot meet the Nation's security requirements, yet the fleet is dropping to 200.  A fleet of even 300 cannot be forward deployed where it must be to deter conflict, maintain world political and economic stability, and also respond to wars and other contingencies.  America's national and economic security will suffer, and the only way to reverse course is to begin now to make the investment in rebuilding America's Sea Power. 

Deferring ship construction is like playing Russian Roulette.   Unlike any other major weapon system, it takes three to seven years to build a sophisticated warship.  Therefore, a decade of neglect takes more than a decade to correct.   When will our leaders muster the political will and commitment to restore America's security?