The Pentagon again tried to decommission the carrier Truman, cut an air wing, document shows
By: David B. Larter  
WASHINGTON – Despite causing a political firestorm earlier this year and forcing President Trump to publicly reverse his administration’s position on the matter, the U.S. Military again tried to push a plan that would lead to the carrier Harry S. Truman retiring 25 years early and would defund a carrier air wing, according to a White House memorandum obtained by Defense News.
The plan, which was killed sometime in November during a back-and-forth between the Pentagon and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, was recycled from the 2020 budget submission. At the time, the move was framed as a way to pay for investments in unmanned technologies and long-range hypersonic missiles.
The now-reversed decision to defund the Truman’s refueling lends further insight into the pressures the Navy is facing in this budget cycle. The Truman plan was just one of a series of drastic cuts outlined in the December 16 memo to both shipbuilding and current force structure. In total, cuts outlined would shrink the fleet from the current 293 ships to just 287, backing away from earlier plans to grow the fleet to 355 ships.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/12/30/the-pentagon-again-tried-to-decommission-the-carrier-truman-cut-an-air-wing-document-shows/
