CDR SALAMANDER: US Navy Shipyards: What They Took From Us. “That is what the “Peace Dividend” era bequeathed to this generation. The subsequent results of maintenance backlogs and until-the-crack-of-doom shipbuilding times give testimony to the insufficiency of it all. While we spent this century engaged and distracted by imperial policing and cultural experimentation in Central and Southwest Asia, the People’s Republic of China has built the world’s largest navy. For good measure, they are also closing the capability gap rapidly.”