Spencer said the use of unmanned technologies could offset some of the ships the U.S. Navy said it needed in its recent force structure assessment that set the bar for its ship count at 355.

That answer raised alarms in some circles where building a 355-ship Navy is a high priority. Spencer’s backpedaling on the Navy’s own stated goal of 355 ships was a similar dance to the one performed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis when pressed in June about the larger fleet.

Mattis has prioritized filling readiness gaps in the current fleet over building ships, but some members of Congress and Navy observers believe Spencer should throw his whole weight behind shipbuilding, including with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va.

“[Secretary-select Spencer’s] comments the other day in the SASC, I think, need some refinement,” Wittman said. “I think being ambivalent about 355 ships is not where the SecNav needs to be. … He has too much of the Washington disease of being soft — well, 350 may be a good number, and we’re going to do all this other stuff, these complimentary pieces.”

“I think you need to be strong and unambivalent as a signal to industry, as a signal to our adversaries that this is where we’re going to go. … Hopefully, as time comes along, he will see things from that perspective.”

Capabilities vs. Capacity

The debate over capacity — the number of ships available to perform missions — versus capability, or how effective the weapons and systems on those ships are, is a carry-over from the Obama administration. During the waning days of the last administration, the debate between Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus turned downright ugly.

Prior to leaving office, Carter ordered Mabus to cut $17 billion from the Navy’s budget over the five-year plan in the fiscal year 2017 budget and invest in more lethal weapons over shipbuilding. Mabus defied the order and sent up a budget that added money to the shipbuilding budget. Mabus had long argued that shipbuilding cuts were the least reversible thing the Navy could do with its budget.

Since taking office, Mattis has been focused on filling readiness gaps and getting the fleet the country already has back to peak readiness. Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the Navy needs a larger fleet but that the readiness deficit created by years of overuse and budget cuts had to be addressed first.

“The challenge is that we’re in a position right now where we’ve got to get the fleet back to sea that we have now,” Mattis said. “We’re trying to address this, trying to eat this elephant one bite at a time.”

Getting to a larger fleet would require annual budget growth of about 5 percent, Mattis told the members, which under the Budget Control Act would be impossible.

Wittman, along with his Senate seapower counterpart, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., have been vocal advocates for the 355-ship Navy, recently introducing a bill that makes it national policy to maintain a 355-ship Navy.

The Securing the Homeland by Increasing our Power on the Seas Act, known as the SHIPS Act, was introduced in June and is still in the committee.

To some observers, the focus on readiness is misplaced and not aligned with the promises made by candidate Trump, who pledged to build a 350-ship Navy.

“I think this 350-ship Navy is in desperate trouble,” said Bryan McGrath, a retired destroyer skipper and consultant with The FerryBridge Group. “Everyone has to first understand that we are 32 ships short of the Obama administration’s goal of 308 ships. And just getting there in the budget environment that prevails in Washington is going to be a hard slog.”

For McGrath, a longtime advocate for a larger fleet who contributed to one of the force structure assessments the Navy used to set the 355-ship goal, Spencer’s backpedaling was disappointing.

“I think it was unimpressive,” McGrath said. “I think his testimony did not convince me that Mr. Spencer understands the value of sea power to this country’s security and prosperity.”

“When you blithely dismiss the political notion of a 350-ship Navy and say it could be 300 with some unmanned capabilities, you are not doing the job of the secretary of the Navy. The job of the secretary of the Navy is to ensure that everyone knows why we have the Navy, what it does for our security and prosperity and how underinvesting in that Navy is disproportionately bad for the country.”

Joe Gould in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

In addition, General Zhang Youxia, a member of China’s Central Military Commission and head of its Equipment Development Department, attended the ceremony. He was joined by leaders of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, as well as those from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense at the ceremony.

The MND release listed the ship’s displacement at 10,000 tons but did not provide further details, although satellite imagery of the ship being built suggests that it will be between 175 and 180 meters long with a beam of approximately 20 meters.

Photos of the ceremony released by the MND and Chinese state media also suggest the Type 055 will be fitted with a bow-mounted sonar and a 64-cell vertical launch system, or VLS, for surface to air, anti-ship and cruise missiles in the forward section of the ship behind the 130mm dual-purpose gun. This ship will also include a set of VLS aft that will likely bring the total number of VLS cells carried by the ship to between 112 and 128 cells.

The Type 055 also features multifunction phased array radar similar to that on China’s Type 052D destroyers and the U.S. Navy’s AEGIS system. More sensors are carried within an integrated mast on the superstructure, while it is believed that there will be hangar facilities on board to carry two helicopters.

Although classified by the PLAN as a destroyer, a recent Pentagon report on Chinese military developments called the Type 055 a cruiser, assigning the code name Renhai-class to the type. Naval analysts told Defense News have also questioned the published displacement of 10,000 tons, believing it to be an under-estimate of the true figure.

It is anticipated that the first Type 055 will be commissioned into service in 2019, when it will be the premier surface combatant in the PLAN and is expected to be an integral part of China’s future carrier battle group alongside the smaller Type 052D destroyers and 054A frigates.

As Defense News has reported earlier, China is building further ships of the class at a rapid pace, with another hull already put together at Jiangnan-Changxing shipyard. In addition, commercial satellite imagery and aerial photographs indicate that preparations are being made for two further ships to be built at the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company’s shipyard in northern China.

The pace of construction of the Type 055 is a stark contrast to its approach to the Type 052 destroyers, which were previously the PLAN’s most advanced ship types. A small number of Type 052 subclasses, known as the Type 052, 052B and 052C, were built and evaluated by the PLAN before the current 052D became the settled design. The pace reflects China’s increasing confidence in its advanced naval shipbuilding industry, having recently built everything from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines as part of the country’s rapid naval modernization program.

North Korea has an aggressive campaign to develop ballistic missiles with a stated aim of attacking the United States. The most recent launch, on April 5, featured what U.S. defense officials called an extended range Scud missile, a medium-range weapon. The missile apparently suffered an in-flight failure and crashed in the Sea of Japan after travelling about 40 miles.

In another test on March 6, North Korea simultaneously launched four ballistic missiles which flew about 620 miles before falling into the sea. Apparently as a result, the United States accelerated the planned deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, to South Korea.

The Vinson strike group is under the operational control of the Navy’s San Diego-based Third Fleet, a departure from the standard command structure of having the Japan-based US Seventh Fleet control U.S. ships in the western Pacific. The move, dubbed the Third Fleet Forward Initiative, is intended to increase complexity by giving potential opponents more commanders to outguess. The Third Fleet is commanded by Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, reporting to the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Pacific Fleet in turn reports to Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, who ordered the Vinson group north.

While Third Fleet has controlled surface action groups on Western Pacific deployments, this is the first time since World War II the command has controlled a carrier strike group west of the International Date Line, a spokesman said. The fleet in World War II was led by legendary Adm. William Halsey.

The Vinson left for deployment on Jan. 5 and, like the last few Pacific fleet carrier cruises, is expected to spend its time patrolling the western Pacific rather than move on to the Middle East under U.S. Central Command control. The Vinson and her strike group operated in the South China Sea in February, exercised with Japanese warships in early March, and most recently took part in Exercise Foal Eagle with South Korean forces, during which the carrier spent five days pier side in the Korean port of Busan.

The Vinson, cruiser Lake Champlain and destroyer Wayne E. Meyer were visiting Singapore’s Changi naval base and left April 8 as scheduled. The destroyer Michael Murphy was operating in Malaysian waters and will rejoin the strike group, a Navy spokesman said. Vinson is carrying the aircraft of Carrier Air Wing Two.

The other stations mentioned by Xiao would be situated on features in the Paracel island group that China has controlled since seizing parts of it away from Vietnam in 1974.

China’s construction and land reclamation work in the South China Sea have drawn strong criticism from the U.S. and others, who accuse Beijing of further militarizing the region and altering geography to bolster its claims. China says the seven man-made islands in the disputed Spratly group, which it has equipped with airstrips and military installations, are mainly for civilian purposes and to boost safety for fishing and maritime trade.

Prior to the announcement, South China Sea tensions had eased somewhat since Beijing erupted in fury last year after a Hague-based arbitration tribunal ruled on a case filed by the Philippines. The verdict invalidated China’s sweeping territorial claims and determining that China violated the rights of Filipinos to fish at Scarborough Shoal.

Photo Credit: Maps4News/HERE via AP

China has since allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the shoal following Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s calls for closer ties between the countries, but it does not recognize the tribunal’s ruling as valid and insists it has historical claims to almost the entire South China Sea, through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.

Scarborough has no proper land mass and any structure on it would likely have to be built on stilts. The shoal forms a triangle-shaped lagoon of rocks and reefs running for 46 kilometers, with its highest point just about 6 feet above water at high tide. Known in Chinese as Huangyan Island, it lies about 120 miles west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, and about 370 miles southeast of China.

U.S. diplomats have said privately that reclamation work on the shoal would be seen as crossing a red line because of its proximity to the main Philippine islands and the threat it could pose to U.S. and Filipino military assets.

During his Senate confirmation hearing for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson compared China’s island-building and military deployments to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and suggested China’s access to the islands should not be allowed. The U.S. says China has reclaimed more than 3,200 acres of land in the area.

The topic is likely to be high on the agenda when Tillerson visits Beijing for talks with top officials on Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang was visiting the Philippines, just days after Duterte said Monday that he had told the military to assert Philippine ownership of a large ocean region off the country’s northeastern coast where Chinese survey ships were spotted last year, a discovery that alarmed Philippine defense officials.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have long contested ownership of the South China Sea, which straddles one of the world’s busiest sea lanes and is believed to sit atop vast deposits of oil and gas.

Also this week, the commander in chief of China’s navy, Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong, noted improving relations in a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Rear Adm. Pham Hoai Nam, in Beijing.

China and Vietnam have had long-running territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Tensions spiked in 2014 after China parked an oil rig near Vietnam’s central coast, sparking mass protests in Vietnam.

The two navies and their countries should “together play a positive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Shen was quoted as saying by China’s Ministry of National Defense.

According to a report in the Taipei Times, the decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates Gary and Taylor were signed over to Taiwan on March 9 at a ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina.

The two ships were reactivated in Charleston by VSE Corporation. Following the handover, they are scheduled to enter service with Taiwan’s Republic of China Navy, or RoCN, by the end of May. Taiwan had initially requested four decommissioned Perry-class frigates, which the Obama administration approved in late 2014, but the East Asian island nation eventually settled on only two for an estimated cost of $177 million.

According to Michal Thim, a Taiwan defense specialist with the Prague-based Association for International Affairs, the reactivated frigates are being earmarked to replace some of the six Knox-class frigates that serve in the anti-submarine role. 

Taiwan’s other main naval combatants are four Kidd-class destroyers, which like the frigates are also decommissioned U.S Navy vessels. The RoCN also has six French La Fayette-class and a further eight license-built Perry-class frigates. These are fitted with Taiwanese Hsuing-Feng II anti-ship missiles, and will eventually include the supersonic HF-3, which is being retrofitted on the latter ships.  

It is unclear if Taiwan intends to bring the two frigates up to similar standards as their locally built equivalents, although the 2015 notification issued by the Defense and Security Cooperation Agency on the transfer of the ships includes the AN/SQR-19 Multi-Function Towed Array as part of the transfer. Taiwan had previously been blocked from acquiring the AN/SQR-19, and the retention of the system onboard the ships points to an anti-submarine focus in line with the Knox-class ships they will replace.

While not exactly cutting edge, the two ships add much needed capability to Taiwan’s Navy, which has found itself at the end of a determined effort by China to diplomatically isolate Taiwan. China uses its substantial economic and political clout to restrict the sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan, which it sees as a renegade province.

The U.S. does, however, maintain strong de facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s government, and the Taiwan Relations Act enacted by Congress in 1979 commits the United States to “make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.” Although in reality that has meant the most advanced U.S. weapons are out of Taiwan’s reach so as to avoid incurring China’s wrath.

This has resulted in Taiwan trying to build up its indigenous defense industry, which has made strides in the research, design and development of advanced weapons. Although as Thim and Taipei-based military and cybersecurity analyst Yen-Fan Liao wrote in The Jamestown Foundation’s “China Brief” last year, Taiwan “will still need U.S. assistance in regards to sales or technology transfer of key components.”

Taiwan previously had an ambitious list of 12 new shipbuilding and force modernization programs spanning 23-years and costing almost $15 billion. This list included new amphibious ships and submarines, as well as the eventual recapitalization of the RoCN’s surface combatants.

However, Thim told Defense News that priority should also be given to the development of the Hsun-Lien combat system. Similar to the U.S. Navy’s Aegis System that Taiwan has previously tried unsuccessfully to acquire along with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System, the Hsun-Lien combat system will be paired with a locally developed phased-array radar to provide fleet air defense against adversarial aircraft and anti-ship missiles.

“The Coast Guard buys boats just like the Navy and aircraft and equipment just like any of the military services,” he pointed out. “The whole acquisition process would become more efficient.”

And Homeland Security, Kasper noted, simply doesn’t do major acquisition programs.

“We’ve been working hard with the Coast Guard to accelerate the icebreaker schedule,” Kasper said. “DHS doesn’t have experience here and can’t get the job done. But the Navy does.”

Hunter also is looking to weaponized some Coast Guard ships to supplement Navy missions, particularly the big, frigate-sized National Security Cutters and slightly smaller Offshore Patrol Cutters. Despite the Coast Guard’s navigational, lifesaving and law enforcement duties, Kasper said, Hunter feels the service would benefit from the military association.

“Even if the Coast Guard would stay where it is, now is the time to make sure the Coast Guard is viewed not just as an extension of US law enforcement but also as a military service,” Kasper said.

“We’re trying to instill some courage in the Coast Guard,” he added. “They’re taking on a bigger role, doing more things. We’re talking about the Arctic, about inland waterways. Until you ask for it, it is going to be increasingly difficult for us on the Hill to sound the need. There is no confusion around the Navy’s fleet size, there’s good awareness on where the Navy needs to be. The Navy knows how to play this game, to advocate for its needs.  Until you start getting out in front and making the case for where you need to be and not worrying about the effect on your budget, you’re never going to get what you need.”

Kasper said a response to the unfunded requirement list is expected within a week or two.

Often overlooked in the organizational structure of America’s national defense is the U.S. Coast Guard. Unlike any of the other traditional military services, the Coast Guard is the first line of defense for the nation’s shores and waterways. Without the Coast Guard, America’s vulnerabilities would increase exponentially, not just at the hands of foreign adversaries but from undocumented migrants and drug smugglers whose creativity for new methods of entry are constantly matched by the courage and stamina of the Coast Guard’s men and women.

One of my many priorities as the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, and a U.S. Marine veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is to ensure the Coast Guard is not viewed simply as an extension of domestic law enforcement. The Coast Guard, even though situated under the Department of Homeland Security, is a military organization that deserves its place — with word, respect and funding — among the rest of America’s military under the command of the Department of Defense.

To best appreciate the unique circumstances facing the Coast Guard, compare it to any of the traditional service branches and their sizeable budgets made possible by the allocation of more than $500 billion annually to the Defense Department. In these terms, the Coast Guard’s budget is shoestring — amounting to $10 billion.

Some of the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard ship Hamilton stand at attention as they wait for the approximately 26.5 tons of cocaine to be offloaded at Port Everglades on Dec. 15, 2016, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The drugs worth an estimated $715 million were from 27 separate, suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions and five bale recovery operations by the U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian naval crews and its interagency partners.

Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Coast Guard has done its job well, always doing more with less, no different than the Marine Corps has done since its inception. This is something I know firsthand having served multiple tours as a Marine Corps officer, and it’s something I’ve come to appreciate in close observation of the Coast Guard over time.

The Marine Corps, managing air wings and a complexity of aviation assets, is facing a severe readiness crisis and Congress is now responding. Similarly, we cannot ignore that the Coast Guard is facing readiness shortfalls of its own.

Times have become so dire that crews manning the undersized fleet of icebreaking vessels have resorted to ordering equipment online and raiding aging vessels to maintain a minimum threshold of operability. This again is no different than the Marine Corps, which only recently was left to salvage for aircraft parts in museums. In the modern era, with such high operational demands across the board, this should embarrass anyone with a stake or equity in establishing a strong national defense, and it underscores the renewed urgency to face reality.

Much of these shortfalls can be attributed to the last eight years of the Obama administration and its failures in prioritization. For the Coast Guard, it’s lacked any real advocate outside its own ranks and was routinely rolled by the two previous secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget who viewed the Coast Guard budget more as a nuisance and even a source for reach-back funding for other programs.

This occurred despite the persistent need for six new polar icebreakers to counter Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic. The last heavy icebreaker was built in the late 1970s and only now is the first of six icebreakers in nascent development, but some factions within government — to include within Congress — are not yet fully convinced of the importance. It’s not the Navy that will patrol the Arctic with icebreakers, it’s the Coast Guard. And as the Navy pivots to the Pacific, it’s the Coast Guard that will fill in and protect anywhere the Navy is unable.

Not only does the Coast Guard need icebreakers, it should have more of the assets, equipment and personnel its needs to do its job as a military service. In that aspect, one idea I am pursuing is the weaponization of a class of vessels beyond those already on the order books to ensure proper supplementation of the Navy mission where needed and to ensure these vessels wherever called can counter any provocation.

The Coast Guard also lacks its own ground-based unmanned aerial systems and is at the mercy of Customs and Border Protection for these assets. So, this year, I’ll also be looking to delineate a UAS program specifically for the Coast Guard.

Perhaps the time has come to begin the conversation on whether the Coast Guard should be moved to the Department of Defense. During the Obama administration, this would have been prudent. Still a possibility, this might be less necessary. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly knows more about the Coast Guard than any of his predecessors, thanks to his experience as the head of U.S. Southern Command. President Donald Trump will soon also learn the value of the Coast Guard, if not already.

A strong Coast Guard is in America’s interests. It’s time to face the fact that the Coast Guard is a military service and should be funded like one — and for once, there are leaders beyond the Coast Guard who are sure to agree.

The report, released Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, says Beijing has undertaken substantial upgrades to its military infrastructure in the Paracel Islands, with the construction of harbors, helipads and a full-fledged helicopter base on several islands in the chain.

Also claimed by Vietnam, the Paracels already play a key role in China’s goal of establishing surveillance and power projection capabilities throughout the South China Sea. Their location, less than 200 miles from the southern Chinese island of Hainan, means that bases and facilities on the Paracels can serve to bridge the distance between Hainan and outposts farther south.

China occupies 20 outposts in the Paracels, of which it gained total control after a series of skirmishes with the former South Vietnam in 1974. The islands lie farther north of the more well-known Spratly Islands, and are referred to as the Xisha Islands by the Chinese. 

The latest satellite imagery obtained by CSIS-AMTI think tank show that five of the island outposts contain helipads, with Duncan Island housing a full helicopter base while the Triton, Money and Pattle islands each boast a single helipad to add to helicopter facilities on China’s main Paracel base on Woody Island.

This infographic shows the reported buildup of military infrastructure on the Paracels by China.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of CSIS/AMTI

CSIS-AMTI suggests the Duncan Island heliport could play an important role in Chinese anti-submarine warfare efforts in the region, although it is also possible that helicopters based there could be used to service the less well-equipped outposts in the Paracels.

In addition, large harbors have also been expanded or dredged at Palm and Duncan islands as well as Tree Island. Smaller harbors also exist on several smaller Paracel islands, with some having been built only in the last few years. Dredging and construction on several other islands on the Paracels have been observed on the satellite imagery obtained by CSIS-AMTI, suggesting that China intends to carry out more work to add to the facilities in the Paracels.

These new structures are in addition to Woody Island, which is now China’s main base in the Paracels. The airbase and first structures were built in the 1990s, and since then China has “undertaken substantial land reclamation to expand Woody Island and construct new facilities,” according to CSIS-AMTI. This includes an upgraded “air base to include 16 small hangars for combat aircraft as well as four larger hangars.”

Defense News believes that the former are climate-controlled to better protect aircraft from the humid, salty environment. The two sheltered harbors on the island have also received substantial upgrades, while HQ-9 and anti-ship cruise missiles have also been deployed on site.

In a speech last month, Carter unveiled what he called the third phase of the “rebalance to the Pacific.” Key components of that plan involve building up cyber capabilities for allies in the region and increasing maritime security exercises, both of which were echoed in Thursday’s comments.

The two nations agreed to create a bilateral cyber working group task force to look for areas of bilateral cooperation, which Han indicated would begin work this month. The countries also pledged to create what Han called an “integrated research team” to seek specific maritime areas of cooperation.

Notably, Han also announced that tri-lateral cooperation between the US, Korean and Japan will expand in 2017, both on the maritime front and in terms of intelligence sharing.

“We will continue to conduct a missile warning exercise, a search-and-rescue exercise, maritime-extradition exercise that was hosted as part of this year’s RIMPAC exercise in the coming year,” he said.

Added Carter, “There are a number of ways in which naval cooperation can strengthen the alliance in general and the ability to respond to provocations and to conflict. So naval cooperation is very important, even as we have great cooperation already in our navies and in the air and on land, and as I mentioned, expanding into cyberspace.”

Towards the end of the press event, Han was asked about recent reports that North Korea is developing a 3,000 ton submarine capable of launching ballistic missiles. While not confirming its existence, the minister said, “We’re not ruling out the possibility. And we’re making preparations for any potential circumstance that we may face.”