Opening Statements

Seapower and Projection Forces (SPF) Subcommittee Chairman Trent Kelly (R-MS) delivered the following remarks at a hearing on the Navy FY27 Budget Request for Seapower and Projection Forces

 

Chairman Kelly's Statement as Prepared for Delivery:

Good afternoon, and thank you all for being here for today’s hearing. As we discuss the Navy’s needs in the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee’s jurisdiction for the upcoming fiscal year, I am pleased that we have both the 30-year shipbuilding plan and the Future Years Defense program to help inform our discussion here today.

The global threat environment has only grown more complex and nuanced over the last year. Now more than ever, we have to turn the tide of divestment – retiring more hulls than we procure is simply not an option anymore. We are not going to sacrifice capability in a critical window for deterrence.

For starters, we need to keep at our rate of procuring two Virginia class submarines per year and ensuring our production rate improves. We also need to speed up both production and procurement of amphibs – our current procurement timelines are hamstringing our Marine Corps and making a continuous 3.0 ARG/MEU presence more and more difficult.

These and countless other programs have long been hampered by hot-and-cold demand signals from Congress, but as we work together to revitalize our maritime industrial base and begin putting money towards the arsenal of the future, that is no way to be doing business.

We could discuss shipbuilding for the entire hearing, as we often do around here, but I cannot neglect the aviation and munitions programs that are needed for great power competition. I look forward to discussing the plans for critical platforms like the P-8 and KC-130Js as well as critical munitions like the SM-6 and heavyweight torpedoes that underpin our deterrent posture.

These and so many other programs are essential to projecting peace through strength around the globe. I am encouraged by the strong budget authority for shipbuilding, aviation platforms, and critical munitions requested in the President’s historic budget, but I also recognize that these are the first steps in what will be a long effort towards a thriving national defense and a rejuvenated defense industrial base. Only then can we truly deliver on the promise of peace through strength.

I now recognize my good friend, Ranking Member Joe Courtney, for any opening remarks he might like to make.