Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said on Friday that the U.S. Navy needs to increase to more than five hundred ships.

“I’ve concluded – consistent with the analysis – that we need a naval force of over 500 ships,” Gilday said during the WEST 2022 conference, according to USNI News.

The Chinese Navy, with more than three hundred ships, already operates more hulls than the U.S. Navy. Gilday seeks to change this and efforts might now be once again accelerating.

Naval fleet size and force structure is an issue that has long been on the radar at the Department of Defense. During the Trump administration, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper advocated for a fleet of five hundred ships with a mix of manned and unmanned systems.  

Debates on fleet size have become routine in recent years, due in part to Chinese naval expansion and the priorities of different presidential administrations. A force structure assessment in 2016, during the Obama administration, called for three hundred fifty-five manned ships.

Quality, as opposed to quantity, seemed to characterize the prevailing thinking at that time. However, in more recent years Chinese naval modernization has continued to evolve. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is constructing its third aircraft carrier and plans to fast-track as many as five in coming years.

China is also working to deploy a new class of Type 075 amphibious assault ships and nearly double its fleet of destroyers in coming years. In an interview with the National Interest, U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said “they have quality now” when speaking of the Chinese naval threat. 

All of this contributes to a larger, fast-changing threat wherein both Russian and Chinese military ambitions continue to place more pressure on the United States. Gilday’s call for a fleet of more than five hundred ships is the latest iteration of naval thinking about how to respond to the current global environment.

Kris Osborn is the Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

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