The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), front, passes the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77) as it departs Norfolk Naval Shipyard after completing a 10-month regularly scheduled extended carrier incremental availability. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Steven Edgar)
RNDF 2024 — The Pentagon should seek aid from the United States’ allies in Asia for overseas ship repair and maintenance, given the American fleet’s requirements and lacking capabilities at home, a senior official leading President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team said today.
The US Navy has long struggled with the maintenance requirements to upkeep its own fleet given the limited number of American shipyards, and that problem will only be exacerbated if Congress and the Navy are successful in growing the ship count to 355 and beyond. That fact combined with the strength of China’s shipbuilding industry is why the US should seek aid from allies, said Robert Wilkie, a former secretary of veterans affairs and the head of Trump’s Pentagon transition team, told an audience at the Reagan Defense Forum in California today.
“I think given the scope and the breadth of the Chinese threat — and I mentioned this earlier about knocking down some old Cold War barriers to cooperation — there’s absolutely … no reason why we shouldn’t be in shipyards in Japan for repairs, looking to expand that capability,” Wilkie said.
Wilkie, who said several times throughout the event that he was not attending in his capacity on the transition team, added that the United States should also seek aid from Sweden for “their ability to build icebreakers,” without mentioning the trilateral pact President Joe Biden announced several months ago with Canada and Finland, dubbed ICE Pact, which is focused on just that.
Wilkie’s idea — to outsource US Navy ship repair and maintenance requirements to foreign shipyards — is not new, but it is contentious on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, particularly those lawmakers who represent constituents who work in American shipyards, are fiercely protective of the lost jobs associated with allowing ships to be serviced in foreign yards. Discussions of outsourcing work also trigger backlash from labor unions, as it did earlier this year when Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro floated such a plan.
