U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) joined U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Jared Golden (D-ME) in urging President Joe Biden not to reduce the number of Navy Destroyers the Department of Defense will request.
Typically, the DOD requests two DDG-51 Flight III destroyers. A reduction to one would significantly reduce the current multi-year contract between the Navy and two large surface combatant shipyards, including Bath Iron Works in Maine.
“We are deeply concerned that such a reduction in expected procurement would harm the large surface combatant shipyard industrial base and its talented workforce, which have made great progress working to increase capacity and efficiency over the past several years. Since agreeing to a five-year multiyear procurement contract in 2018, industry had planned for a procurement rate of at least two ships per year through next fiscal year,” the delegation wrote. “Stability and predictability are crucial to maintaining a healthy shipbuilding industrial base, which the Navy has identified as a ‘national security imperative that must be steadily supported, and grown, to maintain a skilled workforce.’”
The delegation said cutting construction to the Navy Destroyer would endanger national security.
“We are also concerned that such an action would send the wrong message to China and hinder our Navy’s ability to adequately deter Chinese military aggression and economic coercion in the future. As you observed in your first speech to Congress last month, the United States is ‘in a competition with China and other countries to win the 21st Century,’” the delegation wrote. “If the United States is to safeguard its future, we must continue to make vital investments in our military and especially our Navy.”
The delegation said America is not keeping pace with China on shipbuilding. Any reduction of large surface combatant ships would hinder the country’s military from competing.