Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, said the U.S. Navy needs a higher budget to comply with the Trump administration's demands, Defense News reported Tuesday.
He said at the Surface Navy Association's annual symposium that the service branch's Columbia-class submarine program has been taking too much a percentage of the budget.
The Columbia class of submarines is Gilday's top priority. He said the Navy will use the submarines over a span of 42 years after the service begins to retire Ohio-class vessels.
The Trump administration's strategy seeks to overcome the speed of China’s development and deploy ships across a wide range under the Distributed Maritime Operations plan.
