'Why Can't You Design A Ship In Six Months?': Rick Scott Presses Navy Official On Long Wait Times

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Mr. Scott.

[00:00:01]Thank you, Chairman.

[00:00:02]>> [clears throat] >> First, I want to thank each of you for your service and all the men and women that work with you.

[00:00:07]Um General Smith, thanks for passing audits. I'm a business guy, so audits I think are pretty big. Um so I don't understand the importance of that. So um Acting Secretary, so what you just talked got the job, so sure you don't have a solution for everything, but talk about what you need to do to be because the Navy has not been able do theirs and the Marines have been able to do theirs, okay? And so you're you're uh you're on top of it, so how you going to get this done?

[00:00:39]Senator, thank you so much for that question. Uh I as the Under Secretary uh when I came in 7 months ago, I've been pushing hard for the clean audit. So again, we we made sure the Marine Corps met their third clean audit. And for the Navy, we are well ahead of schedule. I'm talking about months for the working capital fund and and we're going to finish the uh the general fund next year, so we will meet the deadlines or exceed the deadlines. Make make sure we do it ahead of time, sir.

[00:01:05]Do you have from from auditors do you have a good list of exactly what you have to do?

[00:01:10]Yes, Senator. We we we have a plan plan and milestones that we're meeting every single day. I mean just everything from just even looking at the the real estates and and just quantifying the the cost of the the land and and doing the inventory, we we are well ahead of schedule, Senator.

[00:01:26]Uh General Smith, you brought up the um the your need for 40 or more amphibious ships to meet the requirements.

[00:01:33]So um Secretary, can you talk about, you know, how you're going to get that done and what's what's the plan to get that done cuz I as far as I understand, it's still not part of the Navy's plan uh to get the 40 amphibious ships, but can you talk about how you're going to get there?

[00:01:49]Thank you, Senator. Yes, we we have a amphibious forces readiness board that's chaired by the the Chief of Naval Operations as well as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, and they just submitted a report to me, which I forwarded to the Secretary of War yesterday, which plans out there's two courses of action. And the the course of action that we we would like to pursue would be be able to extend the OFRP to 56 months, allowing us to have two workup cycles, two integrated training cycles, as well as two deployments for every ship. So, for that, we would require 40 amphibious ships. Right now, we're at 31. And in in the fit-up right now, we have one LPD per per year. And and then an LHA with a center of every 2 years in order to accomplish this.

[00:02:38]So, how long will it take to get there?

[00:02:40]It will take probably to the end of the fit-up center.

[00:02:43]How many? Until the future year development plan, which goes from 2028 to 32.

[00:02:51]So, 2032, sir. Okay.

[00:02:54]All right.

[00:02:55]You took coming in, you and the prior secretary took over a need to start building ships. Can you talk about what you're going to how you're going to change to start getting this done cuz the Navy's had a very difficult time to build ships on budget and on time.

[00:03:11]So, talk about what what the plan is to get there. You absolutely right, Senator. We are right now, there's 80 ships on contract and 59 in construction alone. And you know, we're just not moving fast enough.

[00:03:22]It's taking about 6 to 8 years for us to develop a destroyer. We are looking at various ways to energize and induce uh you know, more I guess competition to the the the industrial base. And this is I know what we've been told earlier, hey, we're buying ships from overseas. We're not.

[00:03:41]We're we're looking at whether or not those ships are are feasible to work in inside our formation. And then, what we're doing is having those foreign shipyards invest in the United States.

[00:03:51]We're going to create 540,000 jobs in order to get where we are right now in order to build ships. That includes pushing the supply chain and getting everything in in the United States in order to make this happen, sir. Again, it's not just about warships. We're talking about merchant ships as well. Right now in the United States, there's only there's only 188 flagged commercial US ships and 105 military sealift command ships. We need more than that. In fact, the Chinese right now have 11,000 merchant ships out there out there and we are a We are a maritime nation that borders on the Atlantic and Pacific and we require this in order to to thrive as a nation, sir.

[00:04:28]Why can't you design a ship in 6 months?

[00:04:31]I mean, it is it I mean, it just it doesn't make sense to me that you if you got everybody in a room, I mean, I've built a lot of stuff in my life and I've not built a ship, but you just get everybody in a room and make a decision.

[00:04:42]And the way the way I've always thought about it is we shouldn't be buying, you know, expensive, you know, stuff, but we should buy what we exactly what we need and and quit changing it. Um so I don't get It doesn't make sense to me.

[00:04:55]So, take the time to answer that question, Mr. Secretary. You're absolutely right, Senator, and this is exactly why we need the golden fleet, which which goes from small to large combatants. The small combatants are are We're investing a ship that's already been planned and built right now, which is the the national security cutter.

[00:05:14]It's It's already out there and it's proven, so we would commission this ship and and build it and then and put Mark 70 launchers on there. So, it's basically containerized system. So, you know, the hardest thing we have in in warfare is the vertical launch system, the replenishment at sea. We've been trying that for years, but in containerized systems, you're able to pull in any port and using gantry cranes, you can pull those those containers on and off quickly. And so, this is why that we need the low-to-high mix of ships because I can't have a destroyer do everything. Like for example, the missions down in South America or even uh uh you know escorts as well.

[00:05:52]I hope that answered your question, Senator.

[00:05:54]Uh um thank I just wanted to 6 months is a good time.

[00:05:58]Get it all designed.

[00:06:00]Yes, sir. You you may want to follow up with a question on the record, Senator Scott.