Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, has said the U.S. Navy hopes to expand its carrier strike and amphibious ready forces by 2020 in order to address what it sees as major contingencies, USNI News reported Tuesday.
Greenert told a Senate hearing that the surge in carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups depends on full funding for the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan, Megan Eckstein reports.
He said the service could recoup its accumulated backlogs by 2018 for the carrier strike force and by 2020 for amphibious ready groups if budget remains stable and no major contingencies arise, according to the report.
“You’ve got to get the shipyard capacity right; if you don’t have the shipyard workers, you don’t get the maintenance done,†Greenert said, according to the report.
He noted the lack of full funding for public shipyards and a shortage in workforce maintenance under sequestration, Eckstein reports.
Greenert also told legislators that the Navy’s forward presence would be spared if sequestration resumes in the fiscal year 2016, the report says.
Eckstein writes the Navy plans to raise the number of forward-deployed and forward-stationed ships in Japan, Singapore and Guam, and the forward presence in the U.S. European Command and in U.S. Africa Command.
