ABSTRACT
The US Navy in the mid-1980s is in the best shape it has been in over a decade. At the end of the Vietnam War, the US Navy had just under 1,000 ships. While the US Navy is building four or five submarines a year, the USSR is building nine or ten. Although Soviet naval experts may argue the fine points about whether the Soviet force is a “blue-water” navy, most agree that it is no longer merely the unsophisticated coastal force of old. The Navy has been building at least 20 ships per year, the number needed to maintain a 600-ship navy, but a few years of building only 14 ships can easily disrupt this favorable trend. Congress has been reluctant to increase the Navy’s end strength. The Navy requested an end-strength growth of 28,000 in FY 1983, but Congress approved only 19,100. For FY 1984, the Navy requested an increase of 11,900, but Congress approved 4.500.
