Lawmakers Plan to Save Some of the 24 Ships the US Navy Wants to Cut – By Jacqueline Feldscher (Defense One) / June 7, 2022
House seapower panel has consensus on five ships; full Armed Services Committee will debate others June 22.
Lawmakers are making plans to save five of the 24 ships that the Navy asked to decommission in fiscal 2023, House Armed Services Committee aides told reporters, while the fate of the other 19 will be debated during the panel’s markup this month.
Language has been added to the seapower portion of the House’s nascent 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to prohibit the retirement of five ships: the Ticonderoga-class cruiser Vicksburg and four landing dock ships, a committee aide told reporters on Monday.
“With respect to the seapower mark, what you have here is consensus. There’s consensus that the USS Vicksburg should be retained,” the aide said. “With respect to the LSDs, there’s…strong support for the commandant of the Marine Corps’ assessment that he needs no fewer than 31 amphibious ships, so prohibiting retirement of the LSDs certainly gets after that.”
