If Congress fails to pass the 2020 budget, the Navy will have to delay necessary repairs on two nuclear-powered carriers, further stretching the fleet at a critical time.

The Navy is adding more ships as quickly as possible, even as it grapples with how it’s going to pay the costs to keep them afloat once it gets them, a top officer said.

CNO John Richardson said Monday that, essentially, the Persian Gulf deployment was business as usual. “The Abraham Lincoln Strike Group was planned to deploy for some time now,” he told the SeaAirSpace conference.

The Navy has created a new fleet, and is sending it straight into the Baltic Sea to test new ways of doing business.

While two carriers attracting most of the attention, a smaller US footprint is being established between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where Russia — and Turkey — are raising concerns.