Apparently Republicans agree that the Navy needs more ships

Not that is matters here, but I did spend a few years in the Navy myself.

During this election campaign, a lot of the Republican candidates have suggested that the Navy doesn't have enough ships. In the debate that just ended Carly Fiorina said:

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What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I'd probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message.

Carson:

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CARSON: There is no question that a lot of these problems that we have been talking about in terms of the international situation is because we are weak. It is because our Navy is so small. It is because our Air Force is incapable of doing the same things that it did a few years ago. It's because our Marines Corps is not ready to be deployed.

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CARSON: There are a lot of problems that are going on, and we need to solve those problems, we need to build up our military...

Fiorina again:

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We need the strongest military on the face of the planet, and everyone has to know it. And, specifically, what that means is we need about 50 Army brigades, we need about 36 Marine battalions, we need somewhere between 300, and 350 naval ships, we need to upgrade every leg of the nuclear triad...

FWIW, here's some more talk about this from the other candidates:
GOP presidential candidates warn of decreasing size of U.S. Navy

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Outlining his policy on China in Charleston, South Carolina, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida warned, "Our Navy is now smaller than at any time since before World War I." In the first Republican debate last month, neurosurgeon Ben Carson similarly declared, "Our Navy is the smallest it's been since 1917." Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in April compared the current number of ships to that under President Ronald Reagan, telling the New Hampshire Republican Leadership Summit, "We're headed down toward 250. That's less than half of where we were under Reagan." The U.S. naval force is currently made up of 273 ships, which is the smallest number since the fleet stood at 245 ships in 1916. While fleet size has fluctuated significantly throughout history, topping out at 6,768 during World War II, today's Navy is only slightly smaller than it was in 2006 under President George W. Bush, when it employed 281 active ships. But former military officials say comparisons between the Navy of 1917 and today's are an apples-to-oranges contrast. The modern Navy includes 10 aircraft carriers -- more than the rest of the world combined -- 90 surface warfare vessels and 72 submarines.

Jeb Bush's campaign website is critical of what he calls Obama's cuts to military readiness, but does not appear to make any concrete promise to increase military spending.

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Military Readiness President Obama’s defense cuts are starving our national defense. It means eliminating: 50,000 soldiers; 8 Brigade Combat Teams; 9,000 Marines; Hundreds of flying hours for military pilots; Widespread cancelation or delay of military modernization programs, intended to replace decades-old equipment. It also means the U.S. will have its: Smallest Navy since World War I; Smallest Air Force in history; Smallest Army since World War II. Jeb is calling for the restoration of the military, returning it to its proper role to defend peace and freedom. It’s time we prioritize our national defense again. He wants defense spending to prioritize troops over civilians, more investment in new technologies and reforms of our procurement policies to achieve overdue savings. Jeb wants to institute a “soldier-first” strategy to rebuild the military. The brave men and women who defend our nation should never go into battle short-handed. This will require: Cuts and limits to the growth of the civilian bureaucracy in the defense establishment; Much-needed reforms to the way equipment is sourced and purchased; A focus on what a well-supported, well-trained military does first and best – defend the homeland.

Interesting that he doesn't actually say "spend more money on the military". But whatever. He does call for "prioritizing our national defense again" which a reasonable person could interpret as a call to increase military spending. Because obviously the United States, which spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined, doesn't prioritize national defense enough.

Anyway, this focus on the number of ships seems silly. The US has more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined (and each one is vastly superior to anything anyone else has too; they can carry twice as many planes). The U.S. Navy has 3,700 aircraft, making it the second largest air force in the world, after the U.S. Air Force.

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