dodbuzz.com posted an article, stating "Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to buy three more submarines over the
next three years as part of his plan to boost shipbuilding to 15 ships per
year, he said Monday in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute."
Romney also plans to
add an 11th aircraft carrier wing, build more Marine Corps amphibious ships,
F/A-18 Super Hornets, a missile defense ship and a frigate.
The Republican spoke
in detail about his plans to grow the Navy while adding few details about the
other services in his speech to VMI Keydets billed as a national security
address. Chris Cavas,
Defense News’ naval ace, broke the story of
Romney’s naval plans following an interview with John Lehman, a top Romney
national security adviser and former Navy secretary.
On the campaign
trail, Romney has promised to build up the Navy fleet to 350 ships by
increasing annual shipbuilding from nine to 15 vessels. Until Monday, he had
not provided details to what he wanted to build.
The Pentagon is
preparing for a potential $500 billion cut to planned defense spending over the
next decade should Congress not reach a compromise by Jan. 2 to avoid
sequestration. Romney has placed blame on Obama for not showing more leadership
toward ending the cuts.
Romney explained how
he’d more actively use the American military to influence events in the Middle
East during his speech Monday. He said increasing the Pentagon’s budget is part
of that as a strong military prevents war.
Romney criticized
Obama for his handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya. He said it
was wrong for the president to blame the attack at first on an anti-Islamic You
tube video that unleashed large scale protests across the Middle East.
“This latest assault
cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the
administration’s attempts to convince us of that for so long,” Romney said.
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