Defense chief: Expand sub fleet

Esper calls for more shipbuilding in effort to compete with China

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is calling for increased spending on shipbuilding with a larger submarine force, even as Electric Boat hires more workers and expands its shipyard to build the next-generation Columbia-class submarine.

But the drive to counter Chinese ambitions raises questions about where more money would come from in the Pentagon budget.

In a speech Wednesday at the RAND Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif., think tank, Esper said the future U.S. naval force will be more balanced in its ability to “deliver lethal effects from the air, from the sea and from under the sea.” The fleet will be made up of more and smaller surface combatants; manned, unmanned and autonomous surface and subsurface vehicles; unmanned carrier-based aircraft; a larger and more capable submarine force; and a modern strategic deterrent, Esper said.

He said a “future fleet” will comprise more than 355 manned and unmanned ships and be built in a “relevant time frame and budget-informed manner.” The Navy’s 2016 Force Structure Assessment called for a 355-ship Navy, up from the current 293.

“To achieve this outcome, we must increase funding for shipbuilding and the readiness that sustains a larger force,” Esper said. “Doing this, and finding the money within the Navy budget and elsewhere to make it real, is something both the Navy leadership and I are committed to doing.”

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., expressed frustration at the