Naval services: we need more ships.

• Position: From the National Defense Blog

* The nation's seafaring branches of the military unveiled a new overarching plan for how they intend to operate in the future. It describes how the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will design, organize and employ naval forces as instruments of national security.

The unequivocal message from the three services is that the world is becoming more dangerous and they need bigger budgets to expand and modernize their fleets.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph F. Dunford and Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Paul F. Zukunft released a new version of their maritime strategy. It is an update of the 2007 document, "A Cooperative Strategy for the 21st Century: Forward, Engaged, Ready." The updated strategy seeks to "define sea power as we see it," Greenert said.

The document also is intended to impress on policy makers that naval forces are taking on new responsibilities and missions even as the size of the fleet continues to decline. The leaders of the sea services are steadfast about the need for more ships. The strategy recommends that the Navy's forward deployed force increase from 97 ships today to 120 ships by 2020. The mix of ships would include forward-basing four ballistic-missile-defense...