The Navy’s plan to increase the number of ships in the fleet is not supported by funding projections or the planned production schedule, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a recent report. “If the Navy receives the same amount of money for ship construction in the next 30 years that it has over the past three decades – an average of about $15 billion per year in 2009 dollars – it will not be able to execute its fiscal year 2009 plan to increase the fleet from 287 battle force ships to 313,” the report stated. The Navy expressed further intention to increase further the number of ships to 324, according to the report. “But the production schedule in the [Navy’s] plan would buy only 222 ships, too few to meet the requirement,” the report stated.
