More Ships, Better Weapons, Smarter Spending: Let Our Allies Help Defend America
America spends more on defense than any other country on Earth. Over a trillion dollars a year. I support spending whatever it takes to give the men and women of our military the best weapons and equipment in the world.
But here is the uncomfortable truth. Spending the most money does not mean we are getting the best weapons and equipment. In too many cases, we are paying double for less and waiting twice as long to get it.
Don't Take My Word for It. Take the Navy's.
In June the Secretary of the Navy told Congress that every one of our shipbuilding programs is a mess and that the best program was six months late and 57 percent over budget. The best one. Meanwhile China launches warships at a pace some experts estimate at three ships for every one we build.
Why? Part of the answer is a set of laws. Some dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. That restrict where and by whom our weapons and equipment can be made. Federal law flatly prohibits the Navy from building any vessel or any major hull component. In a foreign shipyard even one owned by a treaty ally. Other members of NATO have no such restrictions. They buy from each other constantly. And they get more capability for less money because of it.
Our Allies Build Faster, Cheaper and On Budget
South Korea's shipyards build world class Aegis destroyers. The same combat system our Navy uses on time and on budget. HD Hyundai says it can build Aegis destroyers matching the US Navy's own in two thirds the time American yards require at lower cost. Japan's shipyards build some of the most advanced destroyers and submarines in the world. And Japanese builders are held to their bids. Cost overruns come out of the company's pocket not the taxpayer's. Finland can build an icebreaker for a fraction of the American price in half the time. Israel produces battle tested innovations. From the Trophy protection system now mounted on American Abrams tanks to counter drone systems the US Army is buying right now.
These are not adversaries. These are treaty allies whose ships are designed around American weapons, American radars and the American Aegis command system. Specifically so they can fight alongside our Navy.
This Is Already Happening. Congress Just Needs to Catch Up.
South Korea's Hanwha bought the Philly Shipyard. Is investing billions and is creating American jobs while training a new generation of American shipbuilders. The Chief of Naval Operations used his first overseas trip to visit Korean and Japanese shipyards. And ask directly whether allied industry can help fix America's warship shortage.
And there is already a bill. The Ensuring Naval Readiness Act. Introduced by Republican Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis. It would allow the Navy to build ships in the yards of NATO members and Indo Pacific treaty allies when it is cheaper than building at home. With a strict certification that the shipyard has no Chinese ownership or control. This is common sense with bipartisan appeal. Our representative has taken the opposite position. She has spent years writing Buy American restrictions into defense law. Including a provision requiring the Navy to buy anchor chains domestically even when it costs more. I respect the intent. But while we protect anchor chains production jobs. China launches three warships for every one of ours. Protectionism is not a defense strategy.
The Security Question Answered
Some will say this is a security risk. I do not believe it is. The facts back me up. Our allies already build ships carrying our most sensitive combat systems. We already trust them to sail beside our fleet in a fight. We already repair US Navy vessels in Korean yards. The real security risk is a Navy that cannot build ships fast enough to deter China.
The Jobs Question Answered
This is not about outsourcing the Navy ship production. The Hanwha model proves the opposite. Allied investment is rebuilding American shipyards, creating American jobs. And teaching American workers modular construction techniques our own industry abandoned decades ago. The plan is allies building here. Allies helping us build more and allied yards taking overflow so our sailors are never waiting on a ship that is years late.
What Would This Save? At Least $20 Billion a Year.
Here is the math. This year's defense budget tops $1 trillion. Including roughly $47 billion for Navy shipbuilding alone. An American built destroyer now costs over $2.5 billion and takes about nine years to deliver. South Korea builds a larger ship, carrying the very same American Aegis combat system. For less than half that price in two thirds the time.
Apply that competition to the ships our allies can build. Surface combatants, frigates, support shipsand icebreakers, and the savings run $6 to $7 billion a year. Hold American yards to the fixed price discipline our allies demand of theirs. Where cost overruns come out of the builder's pocket instead of the taxpayer's and you save billions more. Open even a modest share of the Pentagon's $295 billion procurement and research budget to allied competition, and the total reaches at least $20 billion every single year. That is $200 billion over a decade, without cutting a single ship, plane, or paycheck. In fact, we get more ships, and we get them faster.
Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers will always be built in American yards. That is not negotiable. But for everything else, the question is simple: why are we paying double?
The Bottom Line
I believe we can get more weapons, better weapons, and faster delivery while spending less money, simply by letting our closest allies, countries like South Korea, Japan, Israel, and our NATO partners, compete to equip the finest fighting force in the world. Every dollar wasted on a program that is 57 percent over budget is a dollar not spent on our troops, our veterans, or the working families of this district.
Defending America means spending whatever it takes. It does not mean wasting whatever we can.
This Is Only the First Step
Smarter procurement is where we start. It is not where we finish. A trillion dollar defense budget. And one that is growing every year. Is simply not sustainable over the long term. No serious person believes it is. The only lasting way to bring it down is not weakness. It is more peace and more stability in the world and America cannot deliver that alone. Not even with the current members of NATO.
Japan and South Korea have the potential to become major world military powers in a short time. In many ways they already are. Japan is in the middle of its largest military buildup since the Second World War. South Korea is already one of the world's leading arms exporters. Today supplying tanks, artillery and fighter aircraft to NATO members like Poland. These are two of the most capable, most technologically advanced democracies on Earth. They sit on the front line of the century's defining challenge.
They should be brought into the heart of the free world's defenses. Through a new Pacific alliance built on the NATO model.In attack on one is an attack on all. Binding the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and other Pacific democracies in collective defense. Seventy five years of history in Europe proves that collective defense is the cheapest deterrence ever invented. No country has ever attacked a NATO member. We need that same shield in the Pacific.
More allies sharing the burden means stronger deterrence at lower cost for American taxpayers. It means a world where war becomes less likely not more. We need this to happen. The world needs this to happen for there to be more peace and stability in the decades ahead.
A Word About Japan
I will not pretend history away. Because of Japan's actions during the Second World War. Many of its neighbors will feel uneasy about a Japan with a strong military. Their memories are real and their grievances are legitimate. And inside Japan itself, many people still carry shame over what their country did. And have resisted changing a constitution that keeps their military pacifist by design. Japan is also the only nation on Earth that has ever had nuclear weapons used against it. All of this must be addressed honestly not waved away. Both things are true at once. The wariness of Japan's neighbors deserves respect. And the answer to it is binding Japan inside an alliance. Where its strength is shared, transparent and accountable to the democracies around it.
The old Romans said it best si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. I understand why so many in Japan want pacifism. But a pacifist position will not protect Japan and recent history proves it. Ukraine gave up the nuclear arsenal on its soil in exchange for security assurances from America, Britain and Russia itself. Those assurances proved worthless. Russia invaded, took territory and is still taking it. While the current American administration tilts toward Moscow rather than standing firm behind the promise. That is the fate of nations that outsource their security to the goodwill of others.
Many countries have done terrible things in their past. America is no exception. People lose their way and so do nations. But Japan has found itself. Eighty years of democracy, peace and generosity to the world is not nothing. The people of Japan are good people. Japan is good.
So if the world is not ready to offer Japan forgiveness. And if Japan is not ready to forgive itself. Then offer it something better. The chance of redemption. Let the nation that knows the cost of war. And the horror of the atom better than any other stand guard so it never happens again. Let Japan earn its redemption as a guardian of peace and democracy.
Kincaid is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Washington's 1st Congressional District.
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