'Unusual': Expert flags Biden's Navy over last-minute flurry of ship-naming announcements

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is raising eyebrows over a flurry of last-minute ship-naming decisions made in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration – which included two future aircraft carriers named for former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The ship-naming spurt includes 12 ships, four submarines and a new class of logistics ships, Politico reported Friday. But, as the publication noted, about half “are either not under contract or don’t have an approved design.”

And that’s out of the ordinary, according to a retired Navy officer at the Hudson Institute.

“There's nothing untoward about Del Toro doing this, but it is just unusual to me that it’s for ships this far in advance,” Bryan Clark told Politico.

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A Navy official declined to offer more details into why the secretary has pushed through so many premature ship names, telling Politico only that the “naming decisions speak for themselves.”

The publication added one certainty remains: “Anything named by this administration is something that can’t be named by the next one.”

“The ships the furthest from entering the fleet include two aircraft carriers — the USS William J. Clinton and USS George W. Bush — which should join the fleet in the late 2030s if current plans hold,” Politico reported. “Carriers are meant to last for 50 years, so their names tend to take on an outsized significance.”

President-elect Donald Trump has not yet weighed in publicly.

What’s even “more surprising,” Politico pointed out, was that out of the four submarines the Navy secretary announced names to, none are under contract. Similarly, the ships named in honor of Clinton and Bush are not yet in the Navy’s budget.