But there’s no trace of candidate Trump’s plan to expand the fleet. Instead, Trump is asking for just eight new ships, locking the Navy—at least for the next couple of years with this build rate—into a much more modest expansion to no more than 308 vessels. An expansion begun by Obama nearly a decade ago.
That’s right. Unless something dramatic happens soon, Trump’s navy will end looking a lot like Obama’s navy. And while Democrats, small-government libertarians, and peace-advocates might be pleased with such an outcome, hawkish Republicans and Navy leaders are already noisily protesting.
“This budget request fails to provide the necessary resources to restore military readiness, rebuild military capacity and renew our military advantage with investments in modern capabilities,” stated Arizona senator John McCain, a Republican.
“The Navy must get to work now to both build more ships, and to think forward—innovate—as we go,” Adm. John Richardson, the Navy’s top officer, wrote in a May 2017 study—emphasis his. “To remain competitive, we must start today and we must improve faster.”
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