Abstract: The article examines the rationale and practical content of measures to increase the US Navy in 1913-1917. The main attention is focused on the ideological and organizational foundations of the strategy of the American leadership regarding the role of naval power as a factor in ensuring national interests. The design and implementation of the strategy are considered in the context of the reaction of the administration of President W. Wilson to the course and nature of the block confrontation in Europe, to the development of the international situation during the period of US neutrality in the First World War. The research is based on the application of the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was a systematic approach.
On the basis of a comprehensive study of legislative acts, statistical data, official accounting documents and sources of personal origin, along with the materials of well-known historical research, the totality of factors that caused the deployment of naval construction in 1913-1917 was identified, the content and scale of measures to increase the US Navy were determined and evaluated. As a result, it is concluded that by the time the United States entered the war against Germany, the role of the Navy in ensuring the implementation of foreign policy tasks was determined, but the goals of the quantitative and qualitative state of the US Navy for real participation in the resolution of the conflict were not achieved.