WASHINGTON — The US Navy plans to reduce the overall size of its fleet and delay key modernization projects in order to fund operations amid spending caps enacted by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year.
The Navy plans to decommission a total of 13 ships in fiscal year 2025, including ten before the end of their expected service life, for a total overall fleet of 287 ships in fiscal year 2025, according to budget documents released Monday by the Pentagon.
At the same time, the budget requests funds to procure six additional ships while delaying key unmanned and next-generation projects and pushing back planned acquisition of its next Ford-class aircraft carrier to 2030, a move that industry representatives have warned could have negative downstream effects on shipbuilding.
Why it matters: Trimming the overall fleet in the near term is not necessarily disadvantageous, as the Navy aims to disinvest in older ships that are more expensive to maintain and don’t fit into a future fleet.
