It’s another major national security problem but few people care

This chart is one of many posted by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and they wrote “The United States needs additional shipbuilding capacity before it’s too late.”
The same warnings are being heard in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and by the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD). They both held numerous public hearings about the growing national security dangers, but the rooms were almost empty and media coverage was dismal. MARAD is the FAA’s sister agency in charge of U.S. ships, shipbuilding and the Merchant Marine.
America’s adversaries have the potential to beat us in war because we often defeat ourselves with infighting.
On multiple fronts the new Axis of Evil is on a war footing. If we were taking the China/Russia/Iran threat seriously we would be ramping up military modernization and production dramatically – both in the U.S. and NATO-Europe.
It’s not happening. Our lack of preparedness is encouraging adversaries. Admiral John Aquilino USN (Ret), the former Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, says “You do not build 435 navy ships (the U.S. has 290) if you don’t intend to use them.
“China is working closely with Russia, North Korea, Venezuela and radical Islamists.” China’s rapid military expansion is unprecedented. They now have 200 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States and that includes all of America’s Navy yards.
Because of its unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine, Russia has tripled its military expenditure to 40 per cent of the entire national budget, while drastically speeding up manufacturing lines.
At the same time, the U.S. shipbuilding industry has collapsed and unfortunately there is also no serious interest in businesses related to heavy machinery, steel, metals, and chemicals which are desperately needed for an adequate defense industrial base.
As noted by the Chicago Tribune, the US Navy shipbuilding program is in a “doom loop” with a budget that shrinks the fleet further today and cuts new ship investments for tomorrow. This ensures there are no plans for recovery to grow the fleet again anytime soon.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) agrees and says the national security threat is increasing and the post-Cold War peace dividend years are long over. He believes there are many urgent reasons to increase defense spending and military modernization. For example, submarine construction is now over 33 years behind schedule and the problem has existed since 1991.
That means we are 34 submarines behind schedule and several allied nations such as Australia want to buy our Virginia class subs for $3 billion a piece. America could have already received $102 billion in foreign military sales and helped allied nations significantly, but we can’t keep up with our own needs.
Our shipbuilding capacity has shrunk rapidly, and now numerous ships are tied up because there isn’t yard space for critical maintenance.
Keeping the sea lanes open is another problem and Beijing is illegally claiming 90% of the South China Sea and the territory of 6 nations. They are constructing about 50 artificial islands to serve as unsinkable aircraft carriers.
The Iran backed Houthi rebels have significantly decreased maritime traffic in the Red Sea. The Northern Sea route would make a lot of sense if the United States had icebreakers, but we don’t.
The US Coast Guard only has one operational and very old heavy icebreaker. Plans to build more have been funded for over a decade but massive shipbuilding failures have delayed them indefinitely.
The House Progressive Caucus on the left and the populist Freedom Caucus on the isolationist right both want significant cuts to defense spending. They both want a defense freeze.
Anyone on Capitol Hill now advocating military modernization is called a warmonger. We went through the same arguments during the Cold War and those who advocated readiness and collective security were dismissed as “swamp creatures” and “globalists”. The truth is America needs deterrence during crises, and long neglected military modernization is essential.
The Pentagon critics are ignoring or don’t care about the unanimous recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. National Security Strategy, the bipartisan leadership of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, and the Report of the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness.
Once again, this is happening while China is pressing ahead with a rapid and unprecedented military expansion.
Iran is surrounding Israel with its “string of fire” strategy, and a billboard in Moscow has this Putin quote: “Russia’s borders do not end anywhere.” There are many good reasons why Speaker Johnson and most GOP lawmakers are so adamant. We are much closer to war with China and Russia than people realize.
Now that sanctions are not being enforced, Iran is well funded and intent on destabilizing the Middle East.
Another significant problem is that populism and isolationism are both growing rapidly in the GOP. The enthusiasm for Ronald Reagan-style peace through strength policies has waned. Reagan almost got his 600-ship navy, and it was instrumental in winning the Cold War. During the 1980 campaign, he outlined his plan to rebuild the fleet after the cutbacks that followed the end of the Vietnam War.
The number of ships peaked at 594 in 1987, before declining sharply after the end of the Cold War in 1989–1991. President Obama made some great speeches about the importance of military strength but there was no follow through or implementation.
The Biden administration has cut defense spending in real terms and reversed the plan to recapitalize naval infrastructure, increase manpower and invigorate shipbuilding. Prior to Biden, the GOP Senate goal was a 355-ship fleet by 2034 but today the size is just 290 warships.
The Biden plan has put the Navy further behind. In 2020, Congress approved a cost-savings plan to purchase four amphibious ships at once, but Biden reversed that decision and eliminated all four ships.
Several of the U.S. Navy’s top shipbuilding programs are running as much as three years behind schedule. The problems include lack of a trained workforce, overburdened suppliers and many shipyards closed during the “peace dividend” years of declining defense budgets.” For example, the Avondale Shipyard of New Orleans closed in 2014. It opened in 1938, just in time to build merchant convoy ships for World War II.
At that time, they were Louisiana’s largest private employer with 26,000 workers. Signs in the yard said “Work every day!” and employees were offered the opportunity to work 12-hour shifts seven days a week.
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman decided to shutter the yard because of the decreased demand for naval shipbuilding.
This comes while China has a rapidly growing fleet which will reach 435 warships by 2030. In terms of purchasing power parity, the combined Chinese and Russia defense budgets are already ahead of the United States.
At the same time, President Biden advocates a Naval manpower cut, a procurement drop of 8 percent, and a $2 billion cut to warship construction.