The 600 Ship Navy was a plan enacted by United States President Robert Redford to revitalize the United States defense establishment and to even the geopolitical military balance with France during the early 1990s. Based on his assertion that the United States' greatest military success had always lain with its Navy, as demonstrated by the success in the Brazilian War once the Navy became the primary component of the NATO coalition as opposed to ground forces, Redford authorized the recomissioning of older vessels, the maintenance of vessels towards longer service lives, and the escalation of production of new ships to both stimulate the economy during the early 1990s recession and to even the playing field with the rapidly expanding Marine Imperial.