Washington, D.C. –Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement upon release of the overdue 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan:

“This long-overdue plan is intended to provide Congress and the public with a sense of the Navy's likely future trajectory.I am concerned that despite Congress' clear intent to bend the curve lines and grow the fleet, this document still shows attack submarine production returning to a single boat in 2021, a shortfall in small surface combatants, and an eventual return to 10 carriers. All told, the plan will result in a fleet that will only meets the Navy's outdated requirement of 308 ships for 8 years, and falls far short of the larger force that the CNO and every serious naval analyst thinks we need for the future.It is also important to note that even this budget-constrained plan is predicated on a 20% increase in funding to pay for Ohio Replacement. This plan may be the best that the Navy can do under the current administration's fiscal constraints, but it clearly will not produce the fleet we need for national defense."

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