The Navy’s shipbuilding plans are due out soon, to go along with the 2021 defense budget request. The Navy has been pursuing 355 ships, but that plan may change. Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the CSIS International Security Program, says that there might be a few problems with the current assessment.
“They won’t get the results into the FY21 budget which comes out in about a week. And the Navy has talked about getting it into the 22 budget, but it will be a new administration, maybe a new strategy then,” Cancian said. “And the second problem is that there may not be a feasible solution. That is, the Navy is under some budget constraints. They’re locked into the 355-ship target and the counting methodology is inflexible. In January, there was no feasible solution and there may not be one in the spring.”
