Heritage Foundation: Navy needs a 400-ship fleet

A new report published by the Heritage Foundation today says the Navy needs a 400-ship fleet, significantly more than the service's stated goal of 355, to carry out two overlapping major regional conflicts.

"Although U.S. defense strategies have varied over the past 25 years, the need for America to conduct two nearly simultaneous major combat operations has been a consistent theme," states the report, which was authored by Thomas Callender, senior research fellow for defense programs at the Heritage Foundation.

Callender writes that industry has the capacity to build 22 amphibious warships, 20 frigates and 24 combat logistics force ships between fiscal year 2020 and FY-39. To do that, the Navy would require $4 billion to $6 billion more each year than the service projected in its 30-year shipbuilding plan.

The increase in ships also accounts for 20 percent additional fleet capacity, which Callender argues is needed because "training and maintenance requirements make it infeasible to deploy 100 percent of the force, and committing the entire force to combat operations would leave the nation without any resources to handle unexpected crises."

In the FY-19 defense spending bill, the Navy received roughly $24 billion for shipbuilding. The Navy's fleet currently stands at 286 battle force ships.

Callender's report comes on the same day Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters DOD is creating two potential FY-20 budgets: one that accounts for total defense spending of $733 billion and one for $700 billion, Inside Defense reported.

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office issued its analysis of the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan that concluded the service requires an annual shipbuilding budget of $28.9 billion in future years to achieve a 355-ship fleet. Based on CBO's projections, Callender's plan would call for the Navy to spend between $32.9 billion and $34.9 billion annually on shipbuilding.