Wittman, Rogers Voice Concerns on Biden's Shipbuilding Plan
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, and Mike Rogers (R-AL), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement voicing concern regarding President Biden's shipbuilding plan.
"China is the pacing threat – this is something we've consistently heard from our military Commanders. However, it seems that President Biden has chosen to once again ignore his military advisors to the detriment of our Navy and Marine Corps' readiness.
"The Biden administration's 30 year shipbuilding plan reduces our ability to protect our aircraft carrier strike groups, reduces Navy's ability to eliminate an enemy's minefield, reduces the Marine Corps ability to conduct forcible entry missions and reduces almost 10% of our fleet's ability to launch missiles. Most disconcerting is that the administration may have known the depths of these reductions and decided to not provide Congress with this information, hiding it with a one year shipbuilding plan presented to Congress last year.
"It takes years to build a ship and we no longer have the industrial strength we had during WWII to nearly instantaneously produce thousands of ships in times of conflict. Reducing our naval power to save a couple of dollars now puts our warfighters in a dangerous and incurable position when faced with China's growing naval power."
"China is the pacing threat – this is something we've consistently heard from our military Commanders. However, it seems that President Biden has chosen to once again ignore his military advisors to the detriment of our Navy and Marine Corps' readiness.
"The Biden administration's 30 year shipbuilding plan reduces our ability to protect our aircraft carrier strike groups, reduces Navy's ability to eliminate an enemy's minefield, reduces the Marine Corps ability to conduct forcible entry missions and reduces almost 10% of our fleet's ability to launch missiles. Most disconcerting is that the administration may have known the depths of these reductions and decided to not provide Congress with this information, hiding it with a one year shipbuilding plan presented to Congress last year.
"It takes years to build a ship and we no longer have the industrial strength we had during WWII to nearly instantaneously produce thousands of ships in times of conflict. Reducing our naval power to save a couple of dollars now puts our warfighters in a dangerous and incurable position when faced with China's growing naval power."