To reach 355 ships, Navy must revamp shipbuilding, recruitment and retention, advocacy group says – By Diana Stancy Correll (Navy Times) / May 10 2021
Nailing down how many ships the Navy needs to compete with Russia and China is only one piece of the puzzle regarding how the Navy needs to grow, according to the Association of the U.S. Navy.
In a report released Monday, the organization is calling for the service to take a holistic approach to growth — revamping not only how it builds ships, but also how it recruits and retains sailors to support a larger fleet.
“Getting to the right ship number is a whole national program — it’s got to be a national effort,” AUSN Executive Director Jason Beardsley told Navy Times. “And we have to understand that, as a people, you don’t turn on a button for the budget switch and get to the number, you have to consider that whole pipeline.”
Rather than simply expanding the fleet, the AUSN report calls for additional efforts to bolster the Navy and eliminate barriers standing in the way of a 355-ship Navy — from crafting policies to keep sailors in the Navy longer to generating interest in military service among school-aged children.
