The new secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, says that the Navy needs more ships and that 355 ships is the right number to target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week after getting confirmed by Congress, Spencer is in the middle of his first trip to the fleet, where he\u2019s spent time onboard the fast attack submarine John Warner as well as aboard the aircraft carrier Ford watching \u201csteamless\u201d flight operations at sea yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tomorrow, he\u2019ll visit Marines at Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to build more ships,\u201d Spencer told reporters in Norfolk Thursday after returning from the Ford. \u201cThree hundred and fifty five, I think, is a very good goal for us to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spencer said the Navy needs to look at every option available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s on the table, from refurbishing old ships, to looking at internationally designed ships that will be built here in the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if the recently decommissioned Perry Class Frigates could be brought back into the fleet, he didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe OHP is a heck of a simple boat that has a beautiful mission and that\u2019s a possibility and we should take a look at taking those out of mothballs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked about President Trump\u2019s call for prohibiting transgender service members in the military, he said that he\u2019s awaiting orders from above on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will process and take direction of a policy that is developed by the [defense] secretary, taking direction from the president and march out smartly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFundamentally, any patriot that wants to serve and meets all the requirements, should be able to serve in our military,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked about his time on Ford, and President Trump\u2019s criticism of the ship\u2019s electromagnetic technology for launching aircraft, he said sees no reason to return to a steam-powered launch-and-recovery system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe title for the picture yesterday was \u2018no steam required.\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey had a great series of traps and a great series of launches. Everything seems to be going as planned \u2014 it seems to be working now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the Navy\u2019s efforts to prepare for any North Korean strike in the Pacific, he said he couldn\u2019t comment on any specifics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just hope North Korea stops acting the way it does. We\u2019re going to defend ourselves. We\u2019re going to defend our allies. They should know that and we hope we can have conversations and de-escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, speaking to the media in Norfolk says that a 355-ship Navy is a goal the Navy should focus on. He also said that the transgender issue isn’t something he’s deciding and is awaiting guidance from the president, via DoD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3250],"class_list":["post-49482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3CBPBQ4BZFFPVMECP2KGQ6HPII","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2017\/08\/10\/new-secnav-speaks-about-a-355-ship-navy-and-transgender-service\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n