Sen. Collins: FY27 Navy Budget Should Include Multiple Destroyers

Q&A on DDG-51 Funding

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Q&A on Robotic Combat Vehicles

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Washington, D.C. - At a hearing to review the 2027 budget request for the Navy, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, called on Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and General Eric Smith to maintain a stable DDG-51 procurement demand of no less than two ships per year in the FY27 budget and send a steady production signal to shipyards, including Bath Iron Works in Maine. Sen. Collins also asked for an update on how the Marine Corps is integrating autonomous systems into combat operations and leveraging the industrial base, including Maine companies such as Howe and Howe Technologies.

Q&A on DDG-51 Funding

Sen. Collins: Secretary Cao, Secretary Hegseth just recently has described destroyers as being the backbone of the fleet. The Fiscal Year 27 budget request, however, includes funding for only one DDG-51, compared to two in Fiscal Year 26, and three in Fiscal Year 25. Such a reduction would send a troubling signal to the industrial base at a time when the Navy continues to emphasize the need for greater fleet capability and resiliency.

Bath Iron Works in Maine, which is one of only two surface combatant shipyards in the country, has made real progress in workforce retention and accelerating production stability due to the steady demand signal. Based on the future year defense plan, how can we sustain the current production alone to be sufficient to sustain both shipyards and the supplier base without restoring stable two DDG per year procurements?

And I would mention that when you start contrasting the size of our fleet with China's, it should be of great alarm to all of us. China now fields a navy approaching 400 ships and is expanding its fleet at a pace that far exceeds ours. The US Navy is down to 291 ships. That is very troubling to me, and to me this is the last time that we should be cutting back on the workhorse of the fleet, the DDGs, which by the way, also have proven themselves in recent conflicts. I remember a Bath-built ship shooting down every single missile that the Houthi terrorists were firing, and it just is something that I can't understand the budget recommendation on.

Sec. Cao: Chairwoman Collins, thank you so much for that question. And I share with you the love of the destroyers. They are the workhorse and the backbone of the United States Navy. Right now, we have 80 ships on contract and 59 in construction in Bath alone, which Bath creates amazing ships, like you said. They've been in the forefront of this war and just doing amazing work there.

In Bath alone, we have 11 destroyers on contract, seven are in construction. We haven't even begun to cut metal for the other four yet. We're trying to allow the industrial base to catch up. And, Senator, if you want to, I'll gladly go up to Bath with you to reassure the workforce that their work is valued, and we will add the ships in future years. It's just right now I'm trying to give them the ability to catch up to the work as of right now, ma'am.

Sen Collins: What happens, as you well know, that these ships take a long time to construct, although Bath is fast approaching a production rate of 1.5 ships a year, but what you create is a gap at the steel cutting stage, for example. If you don't have the steady throughput of ships, and that is my concern, and I would very much welcome your visit.

Q&A on Robotic Combat Vehicles

Sen. Collins: General Smith, I want to commend the Marine Corps for its proactive approach to autonomous and unmanned capabilities as part of your broader modernization and force design. I'm encouraged by the decision to leverage existing Army investments in robotic combat vehicles and commercially available autonomy systems. Programs, such as the M1 Unmanned Ground Vehicle, demonstrate a commitment to rapid experimentation in building emerging technologies.

You're clearly exploring how these platforms can support logistics, reconnaissance, counter-UAS missions, and targeting, particularly in distributed Indo-Pacific operations, and we've learned a lot of lessons from Ukraine on how important autonomous and unmanned systems are in transforming the battlefield. So, I am concerned that if we wait too long and have prolonged experimentation, prototyping, that that's going to delay operational capacity while our adversaries are already integrating autonomous systems into combat operations. How do you see the Marine Corps employing unmanned ground vehicles in the Indo-Pacific over the next one to two years?

Gen. Smith: Well, ma'am, we've got a remote operational ground unit expeditionary, our rogue Nemesis Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, which fires an anti-ship missile off of a remote operated vehicle. That is our commitment, that's our primary mover of that Nemesis system. We're going to continue to expand that, we're going to continue to increase our magazine depth, and we're going to continue to look into all of the unmanned platforms, because as an infantryman I was taught, never send a marine where you can send a bullet, and I am fully committed to autonomy up to the to the leading edge, both in drone technology and in vehicle technology.

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