Carlos Del Toro: Congress Should Have Invested on New Amphibious Ships Earlier

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said that Congress should have invested in amphibious ships earlier rather than spending more on maintenance.

Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Del Toro, past POC speaker and 2024 Wash100 winner, discussed the challenges the service branch faced in performing maintenance work and how the military branch is failing to maintain two “heel-to-toe” deployments of Amphibious Ready Groups. 

The Navy secretary proposed decommissioning aging amphibious ships to make space for other new vessels, Breaking Defense reported.

Del Toro has been advocating for the Navy to get new amphibious ships in recent years. In a recent event at the Stimson Center, Del Toro detailed the service branch’s plans to build three San Antonio-class amphibious warships and an America-class big-deck amphibious warship at the HII Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Mississippi.

Past reports claimed that the Office of the Secretary of Defense was behind the pause, citing cost and design behind the decision to halt new ship acquisition.