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America’s Navy is Collapsing. Can Trump Save It?

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    The US Navy is plagued with delays and failed 
    projects. While China, now boasts the largest  
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    navy in the world. Can Trump turn things 
    around and make US naval power great again?
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    Welcome to America Uncovered. I’m Chris Chappell.
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    I’ve been warning for years that the US Navy is 
    in serious dire straits. It’s like watching a  
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    ship slowly sink , except since this is the 
    Navy, it’s not *like* that, it *is* that.
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    It needs to get its act together,  
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    especially with China beefing up its navy.
    According to a leaked 2023 US Navy analysis,  
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    “China’s Shipbuilding Capacity is 232 Times 
    Greater Than That of the United States”.
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    In other words, China can make a whole lot more 
    ships than America. Now I know what you might be  
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    thinking, sure, but what about the quality? Well 
    first of all, quantity is its own type of quality,  
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    and as you’ll see in a bit, the US 
    quality isn’t so hot anymore either. 
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    Right now, China has 370 ships, 
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    while the US only has 296. And 
    that number is actually shrinking. 
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    But China is growing. In 5 
    years China will have 425 ships,  
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    absolutely dwarfing the number of US ships.
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    The scope of this problem has just been revealed 
    thanks to this new report by the Government  
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    Accountability Office. “U.S. Navy Shipbuilding 
    Is Consistently Over Budget and Delayed”
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    Oh. That doesn’t sound very good. Especially 
    with a war with China looming on the horizon. 
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    The report says, “Despite nearly 
    doubling its shipbuilding budget  
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    over the last 2 decades, the U.S. Navy 
    hasn’t increased its number of ships.”
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    Spending more money for less? 
    Who’s running the Navy? California?
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    There are a few reasons this has happened. 
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    For one, some shipyards don’t have enough room 
    to do what the Navy wants in time. Some also  
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    have just really, really old infrastructure 
    that can delay construction and repair.
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    It’s like asking someone to bake you 
    the world’s largest black forest cake,  
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    but they only have an easy bake oven… from 1963 .
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    There’s also the fact that shipbuilders 
    just don’t have enough workers to meet  
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    the Navy’s demands. It’s surprisingly not 
    a lucrative job. And even with the workers  
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    already in the industry, a majority of 
    them just don’t have enough experience
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    So it takes more time and money to 
    just maintain what the US already has,  
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    let alone building more ships to counter China.
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    Because, as it turns out, building ships is 
    hard. Even when they’re not in a bottle .
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    So despite billions of dollars of investment 
    into getting the US to crank out more ships,  
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    there’s still not enough shipyards or workers. 
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    And that’s because, according to the new report,  
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    the US Navy and the Office of the Secretary 
    of Defense aren’t “fully coordinating their  
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    shipbuilding investments to prevent 
    duplication or overlap in spending”.
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    Communication problems. I don’t know if they 
    need budget management or couples counseling.
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    Another problem is that the Navy hasn’t even set  
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    goals or measurable targets for 
    what to do with all that money. 
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    Unfortunately, this poor communication 
    is considered a feature, not a bug.  
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    A very expensive, naive bug 
    with poor communication skills.
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    Navy leadership discourages using quality 
    control tools such as monetary penalties  
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    if contractors submit late 
    and/or poor-quality work.
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    In other words if they screw up, they still 
    get the money. You wouldn’t handle your  
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    money like that. But the government, 
    will handle your money like that. 
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    The Navy has also actually reduced 
    inspections by almost 50 percent, all  
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    for the sake of maintaining “strong 
    working relations” with contractors.
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    That’d be like hiring a guy to redo 
    your bathroom, he reworks the plumbing  
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    to make the contents of your septic tank 
    shoot out of your shower head, you say,  
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    “Great job!” because you want to make sure he 
    wants to work with you on other future projects.
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    To make matters worse, the Navy doesn’t even 
    have a strategy for managing the US’s ship  
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    industrial base—that’s the system 
    of shipyards, suppliers, workers,  
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    and infrastructure that supports 
    building and maintaining ships.
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    The Navy’s theme song should be changed 
    from “In the Navy” to “Living on a Prayer.
 
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    And the Navy is sending so many 
    mixed messages to shipyards,  
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    they have no idea what to expect 
    from one year to the next. 
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    “The Navy's plans for building and 
    repairing ships vary from year to year.”
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    So that’s like asking someone to bake you 
    the world’s largest black forest cake,  
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    but they only have an easy bake oven… from 
    1963 . And then halfway through you say,  
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    “Nevermind. I actually want a beef wellington.
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    Priorities are screwed up as well.
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    Take the very expensive, new USS Gerald Ford.  
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    “the Navy ditched battle-tested features 
    found on previous carriers and instead  
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    went with more expensive technology that 
    hasn’t always worked out as expected.”
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    Yeah that’s a good way to spend 
    more money and not have more ships.
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    Probably one of the worst 
    examples in recent history  
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    of Navy mismanagement was only 
    publicly reported last December.
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    The Navy wanted to modernize 7 guided-missile 
    cruisers.Upgrade them so they could get a few  
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    more years of service out of them. 
    5 years. Okay. Fine. Makes sense. 
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    Only 3 were completed. And none of them will 
    get the full 5 extra years of service life. 
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    The Navy wasted $1.8 billion dollars on that.
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    This was such a brutal blow to the 
    US I’m surprised the remnants of  
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    ISIS didn’t try to claim responsibility for it.
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    Clearly, something needs fixing. But apparently 
    the Navy isn’t taking those recommendations  
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    seriously. Because to them, if it ain’t broke… 
    actually it is broke, but still don’t fix it.
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    In another recent report, the Government 
    Accountability Office said it had made  
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    90 recommendations to the Navy since 
    2015. The Navy agreed with many of them,  
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    but “has only fully or partially addressed 
    30, with 60 recommendations unaddressed.”
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    This is an immediate problem. 
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    Some experts think China will try to invade 
    Taiwan in 2027. That’s 2 years from now.
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    Is the US Navy capable of fighting a war like 
    that? Or are we S.O.L.: ship out of luck.
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    Well, the Trump Administration is trying to 
    do something. But it’s very late in the day. 
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    China builds more than half the 
    world’s ships. But that’s about to  
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    get very expensive for China and any 
    company or country that uses them. 
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    Trump wants to charge Chinese ships 
    $1million dollars for every port call.
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    And most ships make around 3 
    port calls per voyage to the US.
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    Trump also announced the creation of a new 
    Office of Shipbuilding in the White House.
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    And put out an executive order called 
    Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.
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    Various government agencies will work together 
    with the White House to create a “Maritime Action  
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    Plan.” It’s about countering China and building 
    back up America’s Maritime Industrial Base. 
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    It calls for a ton of reviews on shipbuilding 
    programs, procurement rules, regulations,  
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    and the US maritime workforce, as well 
    as new funding mechanisms and financial  
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    incentives to promote investments into US 
    shipyards and subcomponent supply chains.
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    So essentially, all the things that would have  
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    been common sense to do years 
    ago. Revolutionary, I know.
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    There’s also a bunch of red tape getting cut. 
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    And even DOGE is getting in on the 
    action. They’ll do their own review  
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    of the DoD and Homeland Security 
    vessel procurement processes.
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    And as always, Trump is putting 
    an emphasis on education.  
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    He wants to modernize the US Merchant Marine 
    Academy. These guys are critical to sea-based  
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    commerce during peace and the transportation 
    of cargo and personnel by sea during war.
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    Very important job. 
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    But the number of them has declined from roughly 
    50,000 in 1960 to less than 10,000 today.
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     I haven’t seen a decline that sharp in the 
    same timeframe outside of Bill Cosby’s fanbase.
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    This was a priority for Trump even 
    back during his first term in office. 
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    Trump also wants to offer scholarships 
    to maritime experts from allied countries  
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    to teach at US institutions. 
    Probably Japan and South Korea. 
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    Navy Secretary John Phelan has been 
    busy visiting a lot of shipyards  
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    and building relationships with 
    partners to aid in shipbuilding. 
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    He made his first international trip to Japan,
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    And then to South Korea,  
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    two powerful shipbuilding allies that 
    the US wants closer collaboration with.
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    It’s still early in Trump's second term so 
    I’m sure there will be more developments
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    But the clock is ticking. 
    And we don’t want to be SOL.
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    But what do you think? What specific steps should 
    Trump and the US government take to address the  
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    US Navy’s problems and beat China? Leave your 
    expertly crafted analysis in the comments below.
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    Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thank 
    you for watching America Uncovered.
Title:
America’s Navy is Collapsing. Can Trump Save It?
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Video Language:
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09:06

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