Life-cycle funding is required for everything we build. The naval installation portfolio is valued at nearly $500 billion. That is where training, depot-level repair, loadout and resupply take place. Each ship and airplane departs from and returns to an installation. Can the United States deploy a ready force to win a war in the Pacific if called upon today? If not, we need to set new priorities.Ī deployable strike force starts with essential installations. For example, South Korea believes an attack by the North is possible on any given day and its forces train constantly to be ready. Some locations want Navy investment, but not Navy presence hampering readiness.Īmerica needs a Navy that can protect its interests. Environmental regulations constrain readiness. The Naval Air Station Fallon range is obsolete. Training range encroachment is reducing readiness. The Navy spends $16 billion annually on 96 installations and it’s insufficient to maintain readiness. For how many conflicts have we not been ready, either having been caught by surprise or having underestimated our adversary? We need urgency.Ĭonstruction, maintenance, operations, energy, labor, environment, resilience, encroachment and inflation - these are all cost factors impacting installation readiness. R&D is important but the threat of a conflict in the Pacific is not 10 years out - it’s immediate. Research and technology expenditures raise questions on resulting weapon system acquisition (such as the littoral combat ship and Zumwalt class destroyer) and over-cost and delayed platforms (the Ford class carrier, at $13billion, and F-35 at $110 million). Taxpayers fund the Navy with $220 billion, so how can the Navy spend more effectively for its mission? Here are the metrics: a declining ship count (now 296, with 39 marked for decommissioning, versus a 355 congressional requirement, against China’s fleet of 355 ships that is expanding to 420) aviation readiness of just 67 percent and degraded infrastructure (installations maintained at 50-70 percent). We can no longer fight on two major fronts - China must be the focus.
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