1. Navy League’s Anchors Aweigh Fly In
November 16, 2017
Navy League’s Anchors Aweigh Fly In
XXX Region

2. The Navy League of the United States
About Us
America: A Maritime Nation
Legislative Priorities for the Sea Services
Agenda for the 20 minute meeting. Feel free to focus more on the areas where you feel most comfortable or where the office takes an interest!

3. About Us
Civilian organization founded in 1902 with the support of President Theodore Roosevelt
224 Local Councils
53,000 members worldwide
Our Mission: Support and advocate for the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and U.S.-Flag Merchant Marine
About our council
Try to make this section as local as possible. This is the most important part—you want the member to know you and your council’s role in the community. Any youth programs are especially of interest, and feel free to invite them to your next meeting as a speaker!

4. America is a Maritime Nation
Our nation’s first line of defense is far from our shores, thanks to the forward presence of our sea services.
Keeping the seas safe for global commerce ensures global economic stability. 99% of overseas trade by tonnage is transported by sea.
Our Fleet is imperative to ensure capabilities for:
Conflict Deterrence
Forward Presence
Maritime Security
Protection of International Sea Lanes
Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response
In this section, talk about how all the sea services have an important role to play. We are tied to the oceans by nature of our geography and must invest in our sea services. Forward presence—having ships deployed---means that our first response to conflict happens far from our shore, and keeps our sea lanes open.
This statistic is a little different from what you’ve seen before, as we are excluding Canada/Mexico domestic trade, which doesn’t come by sea, and only looking at oversea trade. It’s measured in tonnage.
“Coming from the sea, we can get there sooner, stay there longer, bring everything we need with us, and we don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.”
-- A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, & U.S. Coast Guard

5. U.S. Navy Priorities
The Navy has released an assessment that recommends a fleet of 355 ships. Three separate analyses, one by the Navy and two by think tanks, all fed into this assessment. Despite advancements in aircraft and weapons technology, numbers still matter for the Navy since presence matters. $26B is the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate for how to get to a 355-ship over the coming decades.
The FY18 budget makes good investments in readiness, and we thank Congress for making it an issue. Weapons stockpiles and aircraft spares require oversight by Congress to ensure the Navy has what they need to complete their mission.
The U.S. Navy is overextended and under funded. The high rate of deployments over the last decade has resulted in deferred maintenance, reduced readiness, and overworked crews. Recent analysis by the Navy shows a need for a 355-ship fleet.

6. The Navy League recommends:
Support and fund a 355-ship Navy by investing at least $26B/year in the Navy’s shipbuilding account.
Fund the ballistic missile nuclear Columbia-class submarine (SSBN). This is the most survivable leg of our nuclear triad and must be prioritized without impacting the remainder of the fleet.
Maintain high readiness by properly funding maintenance, operations, and training.
Provide and maintain the right mix of weapons and aircraft for the fleet.
Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty to ensure American claims on the Arctic and the seabed.
If you get questions about the Navy crash, we want to wait for the Navy’s investigation to complete. However, naval analysts have stated that the multiple accidents (collisions and a grounding) are a result of what the Navy League has been discussing for years: that the Navy is overextended and underfunded. Ships aren’t maintained, and training hours have been cut----this type of incident is exactly what we’ve been worried about. The $26B was calculated by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Columbia submarine is the replacement to the Ohio-class and is our nuclear ballistic missile submarine. As the world becomes unstable, we must have a strong nuclear deterrence posture and the Columbia-class is a key piece of that. Its high cost should not preclude growing the rest of the fleet.

7. U.S. Marine Corps Priorities
The combined arms operations and expeditionary capabilities of the Marine Corps makes the service the “911” force that can be deployed from virtually anywhere at any time. Demands are high though the size of the force has shrunk by 17,100 over the past 5 years and budgetary pressure prevents maintenance and equipment updates and negatively impacts operational readiness.
The Corps’ manning and resources are declining faster than its missions. Global security commitments have forced the service to sustain a deployment-to-dwell (D2D) ratio of 1:2, or two months at home for every month deployed. This figure is well below the ideal ratio of 1:3, which the Marine Corps has determined would be optimal for the health of the force. These excessive deployment requirements creates stress on Marines: reducing time at home and reduced training hours. Over time, this could lead the most experienced Marines to leave the service.
Aging aircraft—an average of 22 years, twice that of Navy aircraft, shortages of spares means the number of aircraft for training is severely limited, leading to a correlation of an increase in aviation accidents. The Corps has concluded that it is 20 percent short of the aircraft necessary to meet its readiness standards, defined as having a squadron complete 70 percent or more of its essential training requirements. Squadrons that have low readiness ratings present more of a safety risk in peacetime and threaten to erode the qualitative edge that U.S. pilots have historically enjoyed in combat.

8. The Navy League recommends:
An active force of 194,000 Marines to improve the deployment-to-dwell ratio, as recommended in the USMC Force Structure Review.
Increased aviation training hours and added investment in aircraft, spares, and readiness. USMC has seen “ a decrease in flight hours per month per aircrew and an uptick in mishap rates.”
38 amphibious ships in the fleet as part of
the expansion to a 355-ship fleet.

9. U.S. Coast Guard Priorities
The Coast Guard plays a critical role in protecting our nation’s waterways, ports, and citizens from emerging threats. Congress has been the biggest champion of the Coast Guard, and for that, we thank you.
OPCs (25 in program of record; replace the (210’ (13) and 270’ (16) Medium Endurance Cutters (30-50 years old).
The contract for the first OPC hull and options for 8 more was awarded to Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. in Panama City, Florida.
The first OPC is scheduled to be delivered in FY The Coast Guard plans to build 25 OPCs.
FRCs (58 in program of record, 15 have been commissioned) are 154’ replacement for the 110-foot (and 123-foot) patrol boats.
Currently have only one operational icebreaker.
Aviation improvements: aviation assets are key to the Coast Guard’s mission
As of 31 July 2017, Homeland Security Appropriations bill for FY2018:
has only $1.3B for AC&I, which is higher than the request but lower than FY17 enacted
Only $19M for polar icebreaker- $6M lower than FY17 enacted
Operating and maintenance funds in the bill are only $875M, lower than both the request and FY17 enacted; zeros out OCO operating funding for the Coast Guard
USCG: United States Coast Guard
NSC: National Security Cutter
OPC: Offshore Patrol Cutter
FRC: Fast Response Cutter
AC&I: Acquisition, Construction & Improvements
C4ISR: Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The improvements are basic; just to ensure the USCG is current and up to date with its C4ISR capabilities, no specific project needs extra funding, should just be funded as requested.

10. The Navy League recommends:
Fund the AC&I Budget at $2B/year to fully fund the Offshore Patrol Cutter and other recapitalization efforts like the inland waterways fleet.
Increase Operations funds by 5% a year to improve readiness and retention.
Deliver at least six new Fast Response Cutters a year.
$750M in FY18 funding for the first new heavy polar icebreaker.
Aviation and C4ISR improvements, including polar aviation.
Recapitalize Shore Infrastructure: $1.6B of improvement backlog is funded at about $3M a year.
AC&I: Acquisition, Construction & Improvements
C4ISR: Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

11. U.S.-flag Merchant Marine Priorities
Our military depends on the U.S.-flag fleet and crews to help carry defense material during times of war and national emergency. We are at a tipping point and must make investments to preserve and grow the U.S.-flag fleet and the mariners that crew them.
Our sealift capacity is dependent on having a sufficiently large oceangoing U.S.-flag fleet operating in foreign and domestic trades with an adequate pool of skilled U.S. Merchant Mariners to crew each commercial and government-owned reserve sealift vessel. There are now serious challenges facing the fleet.
Commercial U.S.-flag vessels engaged in international trade, and the Navy’s and Maritime Administration’s (MARAD’s) reserve sealift fleets, are under fiscal pressures that are impacting their long-term ability to surge and support our naval forces in a crisis. DOD relies on the commercial U.S. Merchant Marine to ship defense material to our deployed services during war and national emergency. General McDew, head of U.S. Transportation Command, stated in a recent congressional hearing, “Without mariners, we don’t have a capability.” Because of a reduction in cargo due to the end of the Iraq war, the pool of mariners is dangerously close to a tipping point: MARAD assesses that we no longer can crew all U.S.-flag commercial and government reserve sealift vessels for a sustained period of more than six months. Additionally, budget sequestration and continuing resolutions negatively impact the funding provided to support U.S.-flag vessels operating in international trade and the readiness of the federal government reserve sealift fleets. Department of Defense depends on the Merchant Marine for over 95% of our national defense sealift needs in times of war or national emergency. Replacing this sealift capacity would cost the Department of Defense billions of dollars.
Our framework of maritime programs and policies should be viewed for the their value as a means to grow and maintain a viable U.S.-flag merchant marine and also for their cost effectiveness as they allow the Department of Defense to forego the need to spend billions to replicate the vessels, intermodal systems, crews, and vessel services the Merchant Marine provides. The Maritime Security Program, made up of 60 commercial vessels, provides the foundation to support the U.S. commercial fleet operating in the international trade and an economically viable U.S.-flag
Merchant Marine for national defense and economic security. Additionally, to help compensate
for further reductions in military and other preference cargoes and ensure continued economic viability, Congress has authorized increasing the payment closer to the full extra cost of U.S.-flag operation, between $5 million and $7 million annually. Congress now needs to appropriate at least $5 million per year per ship ($300 million total) to keep these ships under the U.S. flag since ship operators cannot sustain losses indefinitely. This is critical since the MSP fleet makes up 80 percent of the total U.S.-flag commercial fleet in foreign trade. The Administration did not request the full amount.

12. The Navy League recommends:
Enforce Cargo Preference Laws that generate cargoes to ensure a strong U.S.-flag Merchant Marine Fleet, including cargoes from Export-Import Bank and Food Aid.
Protect the Jones Act which provides the most ocean-going U.S.-flag ships and maintains our domestic commercial shipbuilding industrial base.
Fund the Maritime Security Program at the Congressionally-authorized $5 million/ship to ensure these 60 ships and their crews are ready to respond during a national security crisis.
Fund the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel at $36M to ensure the next generation of Mariners are trained and ready to support our nation.
The NSMMV is a training ship for mariners that is also used during natural disasters and national emergencies. These ships are very old; the oldest is 55 years. About $36M is needed in FY18 (as authorized in Senate’s MARAD Authorization Bill) to get the program underway; remaining funding of $ M can be appropriated in FY19/20.

13. Repeal the Budget Control Act!
The Budget Control Act is still in place, and the Bipartisan Budget Agreement expired in FY17. This means the caps for FY18 are EVEN LOWER than last year’s. Without passing a new deal, the BCA will be triggered as current appropriations bills are over the caps, creating a salami-slice like cut over all accounts. We need a new budget agreement!
Strategy should drive the budget.
The world is too dangerous for the U.S. to limit its options and destroy its industrial base.
Even non-defense discretionary spending affects our national security: Coast Guard funding comes from these accounts.
The BCA was written before global instability escalated and must be repealed so the military is ready to respond to the next crisis.
If Congress doesn’t act soon, current appropriations bills will trigger an automatic cut of ALL federal spending—everything cut the same amount, regardless of importance to national security!
END SEQUESTRATION NOW!

14. The sea services need budget stability.
Budget stability allows them to plan budgets, find cost savings, and avoid costly overruns.
We must return to regular order, pass appropriations bills, and stop Continuing Resolutions (CRs) and avoid shutdowns.
CRs hurt the Sea Services:
Blocks new program starts
Does not allow the services to transfer funds
Cannot alter procurement numbers
Upsets planned budgets
Interrupts savings that come from multi-year
procurement contracts
Secretary Mattis released a memo showing the impacts of a CR. Eleven Navy ship maintenence periods will be delayed, further eroding readiness and training, and pushing some readiness availabilities into The service will also reduce flying hours and steaming days, as well as slow down orders of spare and repair parts. No new military construction projects can begin, which will have an delay in project schedules and potential increased costs, including 37 Navy projects. The current Continuing Resolution is the 30th CR enacted over the last decade, lasting for over 1,000 days in total.
Secretary Mattis said in September: “If we don’t get budgetary predictability, if we don’t remove the defense caps, then we’re questioning whether or not America has the ability to survive. It’s that simple.”

15. The Navy League asks you to:
Support budget stability and reject all sequestration-level caps.
Increase Navy’s top line to fully fund its 355-ship goal and other priorities.
Recapitalize aging Marine Corps aircraft.
Raise the Coast Guard’s Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements budget to $2B/year, and fund operations at 5% per year growth.
Enforce and protect cargo preference laws, the Jones Act,, the Maritime Security program, and training ships.
Invest in readiness and training for all sea services.

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