WASHINGTON — Today, a bicameral and bipartisan group in Congress issued their guidance for a National Maritime Strategy focused on reversing the decline of America’s maritime power. 

Their report highlights the maritime power of China compared to where the United States is today. China has 35 times as many ocean vessels than the United States. It has nearly four times as many workers in its shipbuilding workforce. China is building 1,700 more ships a year than the United States.   

A too weak national maritime industrial sector is a strategic risk, unable to ensure trade nor able to build and sustain the fleet the Navy must deploy to deter China. This case has been made repeatedly in the annual Index of Military Strength, which this year marks the Navy as “weak.” Addressing this weakness need not break the bank as laid out in “A Conservative Defense Budget for Fiscal Year 2025” by a comprehensive group of defense experts at Heritage Foundation. 

Brent Sadler, Senior Research Fellow, Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security, made the following statement:   

“After numerous crises underscoring the weakness of our nation’s strategically important maritime industry, Congress must act. I welcome this congressional strategy and guidance issued by Representative Mike Waltz and others that strengthen the nation’s maritime competitiveness, push back on China’s attempts to hold our economy at risk, and rebuild a merchant marine and navy the nation so desperately needs.  

 

“This strategy focuses on regaining American maritime commercial competitiveness, not doubling down on flawed past policies. Military and national security leaders know that growing the Navy is urgently needed this decade and that conventional approaches will not work. Comprehensive efforts at strengthening our maritime industrial base means working across the political divide for the common cause of revitalizing America’s maritime power.”