Commentary
The Trump administration seems serious about resurrecting a domestic shipbuilding industry and increasing the size of the U.S. Navy. Both are admirable objectives, and neither is possible without the other—assuming that Congress could put aside partisan trench warfare long enough to agree on a multi-year Defense appropriation. There is broad agreement that the Navy needs about 85 additional ships to do the jobs the nation expects it to do. This will cost nearly $1 trillion. That is about $40 billion annually for 25 years—about double what Congress has appropriated annually for the past five years.
