The U.S. Navy's Greatest Enemy Might Be Exhaustion
Is the fleet simply stretched too thin?
Dave Majumdar [2]
With the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) knocked out of commission after a collision on Aug. 21 in the Straits of Malacca, the United States Navy is down two ballistic missile defense-capable Aegis destroyers in the Pacific.
With USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) being also being knocked out of action after a June 17 collision off the Japanese coast, the loss of the two vessels from operational service could not come at a worse time for the Navy, which needs of all the ballistic missile defense assets it can get to deal with the North Korean threat. Nor does the Navy have a good way to mitigate for the loss of those vessels—the 275-ship fleet is already stretched thin.
Source URL (retrieved on August 23, 2017):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-navys-greatest-enemy-might-be-exhaustion-21997
