On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress voted to arm two small sailing vessels. Each would carry ten carriage guns and a crew of 80, and their orders were simple: hunt British transports carrying munitions to the army in America. That modest vote gave birth to a navy.
The US Navy now marks 251 years of service. It operates 11 aircraft carriers and the heaviest fleet on earth, yet the anniversary arrives at an uneasy moment. The service remains the strongest navy afloat, but it struggles to build ships, refill its magazines and rest its crews.
Why Congress built a fleet
In 1775, Britain commanded the seas, and its warships threatened colonial trade and coastal towns. John Adams led a small group of delegates who demanded a navy. News of British munitions ships bound for Quebec stirred the chamber, and a letter from George Washington on 13 October finally tipped the debate. Within days, Congress set up a Naval Committee to buy and equip ships.
In 1779, John Paul Jones captured the British frigate HMS Serapis. Independence, however, ended the experiment: after the war, Congress sold the surviving ships and released their crews.
The Barbary states soon forced a rethink. Corsairs from Algiers seized American merchant ships and held sailors for ransom. In March 1794, President George Washington signed the Naval Act, which authorised six frigates, among them USS Constitution. In 1798, Congress created a separate Department of the Navy, and in 1972 Admiral Elmo Zumwalt fixed 13 October as the official birthday.
From six frigates to a global fleet
Alfred Thayer Mahan’s 1890 study of sea power reshaped thinking in Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt then sent the Great White Fleet around the globe. The Second World War brought the real leap. By 1945, the Navy counted 6,768 ships, and its carriers had shattered Japanese naval power across the Pacific.
The Cold War added nuclear submarines and supercarriers, giving Washington the means to project force almost anywhere. The Navy also policed the sea lanes that carry most of the world’s trade, and for decades few rivals dared to test it.
The numbers problem
That era has ended. China now fields the world’s largest navy by ship count, with more than 370 battle force ships against America’s 296 in 2024. Congress has set a goal of at least 355 ships since 2018, but the fleet has not come close.
Shipyards explain much of the gap. A Navy intelligence report put China’s shipbuilding capacity at roughly 232 times America’s. Congress’s auditors found that the Navy failed to grow its fleet in two decades despite nearly doubling its shipbuilding budget.
The Constellation-class frigate shows the pattern. The Navy chose a proven Italian design in 2020, then rewrote so much that little of the original survived. The lead ship slipped from 2026 to 2029, and in November 2025 the Navy scrapped most of the programme. Only two of the 20 frigates it wanted will now join the fleet.
The administration now promises a “Golden Fleet” of new frigates and heavily armed battleships. In April, the auditors warned that such ambitious goals demand a disciplined strategy, and the Navy’s record suggests that warning deserves attention.
Stretched by war
Combat has added fresh strain. The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026, and American forces fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the 39-day air campaign. That equals roughly a third of the pre-war stock, while over the previous decade the Pentagon bought an average of just 86 a year. Replacing them could take until 2030 or later.
Carriers have paid a price too. USS Gerald R. Ford came home in May after 326 days at sea, the longest carrier deployment in half a century. The crew coped with a laundry fire and failing toilets along the way. In July, Washington reimposed a naval blockade of Iran, so warships must now rotate through the region with no end in sight. Long deployments carry hidden costs: ships miss maintenance, and tired crews make mistakes. Fatigue played a part in two collisions in 2017 that killed 17 sailors.
Turbulence at home
The Navy also faces upheaval at the top. The administration sacked its senior admiral, Lisa Franchetti, in February 2025, and Navy Secretary John Phelan left abruptly in April 2026. The Pentagon gave no reason.
Navy ships also support a contentious Caribbean campaign against suspected drug boats. By May, those strikes had killed at least 188 people, and the military had offered no evidence that the boats carried drugs. Critics question whether the strikes are lawful.
What 251 years teach
None of this erases the Navy’s real strengths. It still commands 11 nuclear-powered carriers and a formidable submarine force, and its alliances stretch from Japan to the North Atlantic. Yet sea power rests on more than today’s fleet. It needs shipyards that deliver on time and factories that refill magazines. The delegates of 1775 understood that a navy demands steady political will. At 251, the service needs that will again, and an industry strong enough to match it.
