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Lawmaker presses Navy to increase fleet size

A bigger Navy is a better navy, says the House Armed Services Committee chairman, who believes ship retirements should be delayed and shipbuilding should be boosted because there is value in being able to show the flag in distance waters.

“I am of the opinion that numbers make a difference,” Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said Tuesday as he met with the Defense Writers Group.

Skelton advocates delaying ship decommissioning whenever possible. “A lot of these ships are really able to carry on for the next three, four or five years,” he said.

He also advocates expanding submarines as missile-firing platforms, including particular interest in building smaller, less costly diesel-powered submarines instead of nuclear subs.

“Missile-carrying submarines may very well become the ship of the future,” Skelton said.

Related: Skelton considers total spending review

The 2011 budget requested $15.7 billion in shipbuilding funds, including money for the fourth and final increment of advance procurement for the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford and money for a refueling and complex overall of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt.

The Navy’s long-range construction plans call for 10 new ships to be built each year for the next five years, but the House Armed Services Committee is not satisfied that the pace of construction is enough to maintain the industrial base for shipbuilding, nor does it move the Navy toward is longtime goal of 313 ships. At the current rate of construction, the goal of 313 ships would not be met until 2018.

At the urging of Skelton and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., chairman of the seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee, the House version of the 2011 defense authorization bill, HR 5136, includes a demand for the Navy to report to Congress on how many major surface combatants with missile defense capabilities are needed, with a plan to either upgrade existing ships or build new ones to meet the need if more than the current 88 are required.

Additionally, the bill includes a provision ordering the Navy to build three new ships for every two ships that are retired.

In a report accompanying the bill, the House committee says delaying retirement of ships is “a short-term solution to the stagnant number of battle force ships.”

None of the Navy’s submarines are diesel-powered, as a shift was made long ago to nuclear-propelled boats, but Skelton said diesels would be less expensive and could be useful because they are quieter and can operate in shallow waters. There is nothing in the 2011 defense budget that would push toward building new diesel subs.