CDR Salamander - Are we on the cusp of a maritime renaissance in time to meet the PRC challenge?

The decades-long slide into near irrelevance of the industry that led to our victory in WWII—our shipbuilding overmatch over the Axis powers—continues to receive more attention over the last couple of years.

We have been “appreciating the problem” for as long as I’ve been blogg’n, and it has been a regular topic of The Long Game series we started at the OG Blog in 2004.

There is a critical mass of “problem appreciation” that is beginning to resonate across the maritime sphere, but everyone is still waiting for concrete—pun intended—action.

It won’t happen overnight, but one does want to see real progress. I am optimistic, but the task is as great as the generational neglect and lack of stewardship that created it by the Smartest People in the Room™.

Two graphics kept popping into my mind this week: one geographic, the other industrial capacity.

That is one hell of a hill to climb.

We could not have won WWII if we did not start pulling our shipbuilding industry up with significant action in 1936, 38, and 40 that gave us the ships to keep both the fight and our allies alive in Europe, and the battle fleet that showed up from mid-1943 and on.

Is the present team in the Executive Branch, along with its allies on this issue on both sides of the aisle in Congress, ready to make progress where others failed?

This will involve land. Heavy industry. Manpower. Money. And, more importantly, a persistent mindset.

We are seeing the money, and we are hearing the right things. It is all moving towards action that should begin showing results in the next couple of years, at the earliest.

The best time to have done this was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Earlier this week, we saw two examples during testimony to Congress.

First, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.

Next, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

Standing by.

Restoring maritime power is not a partisan effort. It isn’t a political agenda. It’s national survival.

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