Fix Readiness First, Shipbuilding Second: Navy To Trump
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on January 11, 2017 at 10:44 AM
13 Comments
51Shares
Navy photo
Carrier USS Ronald Reagan in dry dock for maintenance.
WASHINGTON: Sure, the Navy needs more ships, but first and most urgently, it needs to fix the ships it already has. That’s what Navy leaders are telling Donald Trump.
“When the transition team came around to all of us in the building and asked us what we could do with more money right now, the answer was not to buy more ships,” Adm. William Moran, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, told the Surface Navy Association yesterday afternoon. “The answer was to make sure the 274 we have were maintained to provide 274 ships’ worth of combat power. Then we’ll start buying more ships. They heard that loud and clear, I hope.”
Navy Photo
Adm. William Moran, Vice Chief of Naval Operations
“The first thing we need to do is reinforce the foundation, which is our readiness, the maintenance of the ships we have today,” Moran said.
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/01/fix-readiness-first-shipbuilding-second-navy-to-trump/