Wicker has caveat to Navy ship plan

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) gave a nearly-complete approval to the overall future of the Navy’s fleet plan that Defense Secretary Mark Esper outlined earlier this month, but still had some reservations on unmanned ships. “As a longtime advocate for a bigger Navy, I was delighted with the goals he outlined,” the Wicker, a member of the Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee and chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, said in a statement. In early October, SECDEF said the future fleet plan calls for reaching 500 manned/unmanned ships by 2045, and 355 manned ships by 2035, partially funded by increasing the Navy’s shipbuilding budget. Esper’s declaration received a mixed reception from members of both parties’ House and Senate Armed Services Committees. “He is asking Congress for as much as an 18 percent boost to the Navy’s shipbuilding budget,” Wicker claimed. “I wholeheartedly welcome this funding goal, but the details of how the money is spent will be critical.” It wasn’t clear where the senator got the 18 percent number, quipped Defense Daily. In SECDEF’s speech, he said reform efforts to redirect funds within the and reforms across DoD would increase the shipbuilding account to 13 percent. Wicker didn’t want things to move too fast on the production of unmanned vessels, a similar view of other members of defense committees. New unmanned ships show promise, but have a way to go before being battle-ready, according to Wicker. Use of these new technologies “too quickly” could result in production delays and higher costs. “They should be integrated carefully and gradually,” he continued. The House and Senate FY ’21 defense authorization bills would force Navy to certify key technologies and systems independently before production moves ahead. Wicker called for the Pentagon and Congress to provide shipbuilders with earlier notice on contracts, guarantee production rates for major ship classes, and make more use of block buy contracts to help stabilize the industrial base if they want to increase the fleet. (Defense Daily 10/26/20) Mississippi is home to the largest shipbuilder in the country at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Pascagoula shipyard. https://www.defensedaily.com/press-releases/global-top-4-commercial-aircraft-turbofan-engine-manufacturers-decennial-strategy-dossier-2010-2019-of-pratt-whitney-rolls-royce-ge-aviation-and-safran-the-covid-19-pandemic-will-make-f/