Navy at an ‘inflection point,’ surface fleet more vital than ever, key GOP lawmaker says

The U.S. Navy is at an “inflection point” amid growing threats from great power rivals and terrorist groups around the world, a key Republican lawmaker said Wednesday morning, and he stressed the U.S. must maintain a strong surface fleet that includes large, small and uncrewed vessels.

Rep. Trent Kelly, Mississippi Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power and projection forces, told an audience at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia, that the Navy’s surface fleet — including aircraft carriers and the proposed “Trump class” of next-generation battleships — is as relevant as ever. Its importance will grow even in an age of small, cheap drones and increasingly dangerous anti-ship capabilities wielded by adversaries such as Yemen’s Houthi rebels, he said.

“The proliferation of anti-ship capabilities like Chinese A2/AD (anti-access and area-denial capabilities) and drones from Iranian-backed actors like the Houthis is talked about as a reason the surface fleet is obsolete. I just totally disagree they are obsolete,” Mr. Kelly said in keynote address at the Surface Navy conference. “I think they’re more relevant than ever.”

This year’s Surface Navy conference comes at a crucial moment for the service. The Navy’s surface force community is facing major challenges, including persistent maintenance backlogs, insufficient spare parts, a shortage of skilled maintenance personnel and a struggling industrial base for shipbuilding.

President Trump’s proposed new battleships, part of what he dubbed the “Golden Fleet,” have been cast by the administration as a way to cement America’s naval dominance over its adversaries and to reinvigorate the nation’s lagging shipbuilding sector.

In an address Wednesday, Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s chief of naval operations, said the proposal represents a complete recalibration of how the U.S. intends to maintain maritime dominance. Industry sources at the Surface Navy event this week have said they’re still waiting for more details on what the Golden Fleet will actually look like, but Adm. Caudle said the ships will complement the existing fleet, not replace it.

“We are not replacing the current Navy with the Golden Fleet. The Golden Fleet is an ’and’ initiative, not an ’or’ wish list,” he said. “Throughout the fall, [Navy Secretary John Phelan] and I worked with the administration to develop new platforms with modern, threat-informed concepts of operations that will complement our current fleet and make it more lethal going forward.”

He said the new Trump-class battleships will anchor maritime fires and sea control in the most contested environments. They will be able to mass combat power while absorbing a level of punishment an adversary can’t match.

Meanwhile, the Navy’s new frigates — modeled on an existing Coast Guard cutter design — will be small and agile surface combatants able to handle a range of tasks from escorting warships to supporting uncrewed systems.

Mr. Kelly zeroed in on the need for the U.S. to maintain its fleet of aircraft carriers even as it simultaneously develops other vessels, such as those new Navy frigates, new battleships, unmanned surface vessels, and others.

“We don’t need permission to use carriers to project our power around the world,” he said. “Our carriers provide us with an airport, an airfield, anywhere in the world without asking permission from somebody to use it.”