military lacks mature defense programs and the industrial capacity to build them at scale. Even if the Pentagon and Congress could reach consensus on these questions, the U.S. The real impediments to urgent change are a lack of consensus on the risks posed by China, a lack of a shared vision for the future of the fleet, and limited options for implementing a new vision. allies, partners, and vital interests in the Indo-Pacific region deterring China rests on a credible ability to defeat its aggression or deny China its objectives and that this form of deterrence will require new methods of fighting wars backed by modernized air and naval forces. military response should focus on deterring Chinese aggression against U.S. Specifically, they recognize that China is the most pressing military challenge facing the United States the U.S. Moreover, the bureaucracy, the services, and key components of Congress all generally agree on the core precepts of the 2018 National Defense Strategy. While Congress certainly determines the final shape of the authorized and appropriated budget, it has less influence on the executive branch’s initial budget request. Inertia and parochialism are powerful forces, but hardly insurmountable ones, especially when facing a clear and pressing challenge. The stock response is usually a mix of bureaucratic inertia, service parochialism, and congressional obstruction. Despite the need for “ urgent change at significant scale” to meet the Chinese military challenge, the last four budget requests have offered only measured change at moderate scale.

However, the issues noted by critics aren’t limited to this budget, but reflect a persistent trend since at least the FY2019 request, which was the first defense budget request to prioritize China as a strategic competitor.

Critics have directed their ire, in particular, at the budget’s treatment of the Navy, given the administration’s purported focus on China as a strategic competitor. Myriad authors have responded to the Biden administration’s Fiscal Year 2022 defense budget request with a mix of confusion and consternation. How did this happen to a force that, as recently as two decades ago, dominated the world’s oceans to a degree perhaps unequalled in human history? The answer is gradually and then suddenly. Finally, the fleet isn’t capable enough to meet the challenges posed by China’s increasingly modern and aggressive People’s Liberation Army Navy. Due to repeated deployments and maintenance backlogs, the fleet also isn’t ready enough to meet these demands safely, nor can it quickly surge in an emergency. Its fleet isn’t large enough to meet global day-to-day demands for naval forces. Navy is on the verge of strategic bankruptcy.

On Seas of Glory by John Lehman