WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement in response to the Department of the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan: 

“The Navy’s shipbuilding plan is a blueprint to end America’s command of the sea,” Wicker said. “It not only fails to articulate a way to reach the Navy’s battle force requirement, but also proposes shrinking our fleet in the near term. This suggestion indicates our defense leaders have no real plan to address the existential threat China’s growing navy poses to our interests and to our ally Taiwan.”  

“To restore our fleet and deter the Chinese Communist Party, any shipbuilding plan must start with achieving the statutory 355-ship fleet as soon as possible. It must also make monumental investments in domestic maritime infrastructure, workforce, and innovative technologies to sustain the Navy that this country needs. Congress must again step up and ensure that our fleet grows in response to the threat we face in the Pacific.” 

Specifically, Wicker disputed the Navy’s plan to: 

• Retire more ships without immediate replacements so that the battle force reaches a low of 285 in FY26 and FY27. 
• Suggest only one alternative where the fleet reaches the statutory requirement of 355 ships – not until FY42 support ships. 
• Offset a shrinking force of surface combatants, attack submarines, and other platforms with only small supporting vessels.
• Shrink the number of amphibious warships available by more than 30 compared to last year’s Navy plan, below the statutory requirement. 
• Release the study fewer than 24 hours prior to the testimony of the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and Commandant of the Marine Corps before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

This chart, which illustrates a shipbuilding plan pathway provided by the Department of the Navy, indicates a sharp dropoff in amphibious warfare ships versus previous shipbuilding plans provided by the Navy.