The Navy would be wise to invest in Everett for a new class of ships.

A flurry of spending bills passed by Congress this month included a modest $19 million for military housing at the Naval Support Facility at Smokey Point in Snohomish County. The Navy plans to use it to build 88 new units for service members and their families, at the request of several members of the Congressional delegation in Washington.

This wise investment will ensure new housing for sailors serving on ships based at Naval Base Everett. But most importantly, it also builds on the Navy’s new long-term commitment to the city’s waterfront. Starting in 2028, Everett will begin accepting a new fleet of guided missile frigates called the Constellation class.

“…We have to have housing to accommodate this influx of sailors and their families,” said Rep. Susan DelBene, D-Medina, adding that Everett is short of about 150 units of military housing. He pointed out that

The Navy originally built the 30-year-old Everett base to house aircraft carriers. However, the last flattop was left there in 2015 when the USS Nimitz departed for Bremerton. Rep. Rick Larsen, an Everett Democrat, helped identify a new future for small vessels for installation.

Larsen argued that the Navy should find a new mission for the Pacific Northwest’s deep-water ports, which are close to the increasingly important Indo-Pacific region. The new frigate and its future crew face a world of increasing tensions and threats to freedom of navigation and commerce. These include everything from China’s tough stance on Taiwan to an actual firefight between the navy and Houthi rebels firing missiles from Yemen into Red Sea shipping traffic.

Ultimately, the Navy will replace the seven destroyers and one cruiser currently homeported in Everett with 12 new frigates, scheduled to be built and delivered by 2037. The number of sailors based in Everett will actually decrease slightly, from 3,100 to 2,900.

But smaller, more agile ships could help the Navy spread its fleet across the Pacific and beyond while reducing crew size at a time when the entire U.S. military is struggling to meet recruiting goals. At about $1.1 billion each, frigates are likely to cost about half as much to produce as larger destroyers, but they still have about a third of the firepower, said Brian Clark, a senior research fellow at the Hudson Institute. It is said that it can provide 2.

The Navy will need to add more facilities to Everett to support the new class of ships, including training and management. Fincantieri, the Italian company whose Wisconsin shipyard is building at least the first four ships of the class, is leasing space at the Port of Everett, the Everett Herald reported this week.

With the upcoming Constellation class, the Northwest’s naval vessels and sailors, including ballistic missile submarines at Hood Canal and aircraft carriers at Bremerton, will play an important role in national defense given changing geopolitics and real-world conflicts around the world. will be fulfilled.

Local members of Washington’s Congressional delegation must continue to fight for adequate housing, facilities, and quality-of-life amenities for facilities here like the one in Everett.