Defense Department Budget for Fiscal Year 2004 and Posture of the US Armed Forces

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Secretary, at the same time that we are deploying troops around the globe for the war against terrorism, as well as to prepare for a potential war in Iraq, we have a number of existing deployments that continue to require extensive resources to maintain. We have, for example, some 37,000 troops in Korea, and more than 70,000 troops in Germany. With the increasing demands on our military, I believe that it is time for us to reevaluate the need for those existing deployments. For instance, our large presence in Germany is largely a legacy of the Cold War, and arguably, that threat no longer exists.

My question is, is the department reexamining the need for large deployments in Germany and Korea?

SEN. COLLINS: I'd now like to turn to the shipbuilding budget. That will probably come as no surprise to you. I'm pleased that the '04 budget submission appears to turn the corner on shipbuilding, and it is a marked improvement over last year. However, even with budgeting for seven ships, the Navy's fleet is still going to drop, as you indicated, below 300 ships in the coming years. The chief of naval operations has repeatedly testified—and I talked to him just recently—that our nation requires a fleet of 375 ships in order to fulfill all of the Navy's mission requirements.

Now, I appreciate your testimony that you don't want to lock the department into a shipbuilding program until you're certain what kinds of ships you need and what the mix should be, but how are you going to remedy the deficit we have in coming years if we don't start making more of that investment now? And again, I applaud you for putting seven ships in. That's a big improvement over five of last year. But it still is not at the rate we need, which is more like 10 or 11 ships a year.