To their credit, President Trump and his administration recognize the need for a much larger Navy. The effort to build a larger Navy began during his first term and has been aggressive and more organized so far in his second term. The first Trump administration announced, and the Congress passed into law the requirement for a 355-ship Navy December 17th, 2017, with the passage of the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. That was more than 8 years ago. In 2022, the then CNO ADM Gilday reported that Navy analysis showed that the Navy needed 523 ships (363 manned ships and 150 unmanned ships). These updated requirements have not been adopted by Congress despite extensive analysis by the Navy and naval experts who recommend an even higher number of ships. Heritage Foundation recommends 400 ships, and the Congressional Research Service documents a requirement of 381. Considering all these sources, the reality is the requirement is now even higher than that mandated in 2017. Congress has not specified a target for the number of Navy unmanned ships. Certainly, the lessons of the Ukraine/Russia war and our more recent conflict against Iran plus the maturing of technology show the need exists for much more autonomous military capability. Significant resources are being spent in that domain in appropriations passed by Congress despite no requirement having been articulated by policy or law.

Thus, it should be clear to all we need a larger Navy. Just look at use of the Navy in Operation Epic Fury, an operation that is ongoing with the Navy currently devoting two carrier strike groups (Washington, Bush,) comprising 12 ships plus the Makin Island ARG (Amphibious Ready Group of three amphibs plus one ESB). Close to the action in the Indian Ocean are a cruiser and 5 DDG’s. This is a total of 22 total ships plus auxiliaries on station in the middle east or close at hand for whatever President Trump plans to next. Not reported by any public source, of course, is now many submarines are also in the region. It would be astonishing if the Navy did not have at least one SSN in the area. We know with certainty that SSNs were involved in the earlier kinetic war sinking the Iranian Navy as Epic Fury got underway. At least 6 MSC auxiliaries have been reported in the middle east during 2026 taking the total to up to 29 ships involved Operation Epic Fury.