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US Navy Wants Larger, Better Fleet, Says Cost Not Determined
At the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, senior fellow Bryan Clark said Congress has recently shown a willingness to add Navy ships to the budget and he thinks they'll continue to do so to get to a larger fleet. Congress can't necessarily commit to a future vision because the budget is done year to year, not decades out, he added. Clark, who worked for the previous chief of naval operations, said the most innovative part of the paper is the proposed interconnectivity of the future fleet, so ships over hundreds of miles can work together to achieve a mission and a single ship doesn't have to be capable of doing every mission on its own. It's a different way of thinking about a Navy, he said.
Trump Pentagon Budget Adds Ship, No Planes, to Obama Plan, Officials Say
“With just $18 billion in new spending penciled in,” the Trump administration “is going to be pitching a paper buildup to the Congress,” Katherine Blakeley, budget analyst for the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said in an email.
355-Ship Navy: Big Opportunity but Big Challenges
The stories are familiar to Bryan Clark, a former submarine officer who led strategic planning for the Navy as special assistant to the chief of naval operations until 2013. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The small to midsized suppliers to larger shipyards don't rely on automated processes or hundreds of workers. In some cases, specialized items "are made in an artisan sort of way," he said.
BGOV Tools for Tracking the Defense Budget
The dashboard also includes cost estimates from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments for projects that haven’t yet been designated as major programs that require SARs.
Navy Contemplates Results of a Future Aircraft Carrier Study - Will New, Smaller Carriers Emerge in the Future?
According to a report from Scout Warrior's Michael Fabey, the CSBA report recommends a high/low mix of traditional carriers along with new, more agile smaller carriers.
Congress Protects U.S. Foreign Aid for Now but the Budget Wars are Just Beginning
Lastly, all the funding in the world cannot compensate for poor foreign policy choices. As Hal Brands has argued, Trump’s conduct of foreign policy to date has been a blend of incoherence and incompetence. This does not augur well for the future.