Donald Trump orders massive £4billion investment in US navy fleet amid fears of war with ‘aggressive’ China and Russia
The 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the President-elect had promoted on the campaign trail
AS Donald Trump demands more ships, the US Navy has proposed the biggest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War.
The move is said to be to counteract the threats from a resurgent Russia and saber-rattling China with price clocking in at more than £4billion.
The Navy's 355-ship proposal released last month is even larger than what the President-elect had promoted on the campaign trail.
It currently has 274 deployable battle force ships, far short of its old goal of 308.
The move could provide a potential boost to shipyards which have struggled due to budget caps that have limited funding for ships.
Trump's campaign specifically targeted workers in blue collar America, where he performed particularly well among white working classes in industrial states.
At Maine's Bath Iron Works, workers worried about the future want to build more ships but wonder where the billions of dollars will come from.
President of the shipyard's largest union Rich Nolan said: "Whether Congress and the government can actually fund it, is a whole other ball game."
Boosting shipbuilding to meet the Navy's 355-ship goal could require an additional £4billion to £4.5billion in annual spending in the Navy's 30-year projection, according to an estimate by naval analyst Ronald O'Rourke at the Congressional Research Service.
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The Navy's revised Force Structure Assessment calls for adding another 47 ships.
These include an aircraft carrier built in Virginia, 16 large surface warships built in Maine and Mississippi, and 18 attack submarines built in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia.
It also calls for more amphibious assault ships, expeditionary transfer docks and support ships.
In addition to being a boon for national security, a larger fleet would be better for both the sailors, who'd enjoy shorter deployments, and for the ships, which would have more down time for maintenance, according to Matthew Paxton.
Paxton is the president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, which represents most of the major Navy shipbuilders.
He said: "Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies.
"The complexities aren't going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We're going to need this Navy."
The United States Navy Budget
By COURTNEY BARTLETT
Many defense analysts agree that military capabilities have been degraded in recent years, especially when it comes to warships, aircraft and tanks.
The key is finding a way to increase Navy shipbuilding to achieve defense and economic gains "in a fiscally responsible way that does not pass the bill along to our children," said independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Despite its size, Trump's proposals pale in comparison to President Ronald Reagan's monstrous goal of a 600 ship Navy.
Lawrence J. Korb, a retired naval officer and former assistant defence secretary under Reagan, said the Navy's request isn't realistic unless the Trump administration is willing to take the budget "to levels we've never seen."
"You never have enough money to buy a perfect defense. You have to make trade-offs," said Korb, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
But investors apparently are betting on more ships.
General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, Connecticut-based Electric Boat and California-based NASSCO, and Huntington Ingalls, which owns major shipyards in Virginia and in Mississippi, have both seen stock prices creep upward since the election.
"To the generic military shipbuilder, it's a bull market right now," said Ronald Epstein, an analyst at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch division.
In Bath, the 6,000 shipbuilders aren't going to count their eggs before they hatch.
"A lot of people are hopeful that it'll happen," Nolan said.
"But they're taking a wait-and-see approach. They've heard it before and then seen it not come to fruition."
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