The carriers are the focus of this alarming report that says we could go from 11 carriers to as few as 8:
And it’s not just about cutting carriers — it’s air wings with seven or so squadrons of aircraft, it’s a cruiser and three or four destroyers, and it’s the crews. Substantial savings would be found from reducing nearly 10,000 personnel billets with the elimination of each strike group.
Amazingly, the cuts would eliminate the escorts as if we don't have missions for surface action groups absent a carrier at the core. The story says that the Navy struggling to maintain about 300 ships could shrink to as few as 230-250 submarines and ships--including amphibious vessels.
In what world is a slight pivot to the Pacific relevant when our total fleet shrinks? As I feared, the grand strategic pivot is more about pivoting away from the Middle East than it is turning to face more relevant threats in the Pacific.
I'm not so worried about going down to 8 big deck carriers and the associated air wings (one fewer, I think, since one carrier will be in no condition to sail at any given time). We do need a proper debate on their missions. But if we are to lose carriers, I want the money saved to go to other naval assets to keep our Navy from shrinking to a size where we cannot meet our commitments overseas.
The retired carriers, as the initial article states, would come from those approaching a mid-life refueling and upgrade, if this option is selected:
George Washington, set to begin its refueling overhaul in 2015, would likely go, along with the John C. Stennis and possibly the Harry S. Truman.
Washington was commissioned in 1992; Stennis in 1995; and Truman in 1998. Since these carriers have a fifty-year career and it is very expensive to scrap them, they'd likely be available in the future to either replace retiring carriers at the end of their cycle or in response to emerging threats.
I'm very concerned about gutting the Army. But all the services are threatened. Yet somehow our federal government manages to spend like drunken sailors on any program conceived by compassion or bureaucrats for non-defense functions. Amazing.
Thank goodness we aren't at war.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, and to complete my joy--far fewer hulls and who needs Harpoon anti-ship missiles, anyway?
