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Plans to build a 500-ship Navy are still intact as the Trump admin­is­tra­tion ush­ered in a host of new lead­ers at the Pen­ta­gon this week — though the top admi­ral over­see­ing ship­build­ing says chal­lenges remain.

Bat­tle Force 2045, Defense Sec­re­tary Mark Esper’s ambi­tious plan to near­ly dou­ble the size of the Navy fleet, is still under­way. Esper was fired by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s this week, and sev­er­al new civil­ian lead­ers were installed to replace him and oth­er top pol­i­cy staffers.

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