Editors' Pick|12,188 views|Apr 24, 2020,10:16am EDT
Pentagon Study Would Cut Aircraft Carriers, Undermining Most Useful U.S. Warfighting System
Loren Thompson
Defense News reported this week that a Pentagon office has proposed reducing the number of aircraft carriers in the U.S. fleet from eleven to nine. That may not sound like much, but in operational terms it means that on a typical day the Navy would only be able to have two or three carriers forward deployed near global hot spots.
The finding apparently comes from the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) shop, which was tasked by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper with finding ways of making the Navy lighter.
Warfighting systems don’t get much heavier than the large-deck, nuclear-powered carriers that are the signature expression of U.S. military power. No other nation has anything quite like them, because no other nation tries to sustain a global deterrence and peacekeeping role.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2020/04/24/pentagon-study-would-cut-aircraft-carriers-undermining-most-useful-us-warfighting-system/#3dbc9abd4c2d
