DEMOCRATS ACCUSED TRUMP OF BEING A RUSSIAN TOOL, BUT WHAT WOULD A CHINESE TOOL DO DIFFERENTLY?

‘Sinking Our Future’: Biden’s Budget Cuts Funds to U.S. Navy As China Ramps Up Shipbuilding.

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The Biden administration wants to enact sharp budget cuts to the U.S. Navy that would force it to prematurely retire almost a dozen ships and take offline critical missile systems that serve as a primary deterrent to Chinese aggression.

President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal would deal a massive blow to the already strained American Navy—the White House wants to prematurely retire eight ships and two combat vessels. By taking these ships out of action, the Navy would lose more than 600 vertical launch missile systems—a missile capability that serves as the primary deterrent to Chinese military attacks in the Pacific, according to congressional research provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

“The Biden Administration’s defense budget would hollow out our fleet and scrap Navy radars and missile systems we desperately need to deter China,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, told the Free Beacon. “Prematurely retiring our ships sends exactly the wrong signal to China as they continue to build their own Navy at a historic pace.”

Biden’s budget would decrease the total number of active Navy ships, retiring at least 11 ships while only requesting the construction of nine new vessels. The Navy currently has 294 battle force ships, far short of the 355 it is required to have by law. Biden’s budget would further reduce this number, according to information about the White House’s 2023 budget proposal codified by Wicker’s office.

China, meanwhile, expects to field more than 400 ships by 2025 amid a rapid growth plan that will modernize its fleet with aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers, and surface combat vessels, according to American defense officials. China’s current fleet stands at around 340 ships.

h/t SG

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