CNO Gilday: Flat or Declining Navy Budgets ‘Will Definitely Shrink’ the Fleet - USNI News

The number of ships in the fleet, now at 296 ships, will decrease if the Navy continues to have flat or declining budgets, the service’s top officer told Congress today.
Despite numerous evaluations showing the Navy needs more ships, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told the House Armed Service Committee that without a topline increase to the service’s budget, the fleet will only get smaller.

“As you all know, the results of analysis done over the past five years – whether inside the Pentagon or outside – have been consistent and clear: America needs a larger, more capable fleet,” Gilday said. “Our latest Future [Naval Force Structure] assessment provided the headlights not only for the size of our future fleet, but importantly for the composition of that fleet, the capabilities that it brings to the joint force. If the Navy’s top-line remains flat or goes down further, the size of our fleet will definitely shrink.”

The Pentagon’s overall budget request of $715 billion for FY 2022 is largely flat when factoring in inflation. The Navy is asking for $211.7 billion for the upcoming fiscal year including a modest request to purchase eight ships, four of which are combatants.