The short-sightedness of the post-Cold War defense establishment from the 1990s onward, particularly under the regimes of CNOs Vern Clark, Mike Mullen, and Gary Roughhead, are to blame. That's when the production capability contracted, due to the "New World Order, "the "End of History," and diversion of resources and procurement funding to the Army after 9/11. The Navy did not decline overnight, but has now reached the point where its ships look like scows and its personnel no longer have basic seamanship skills, much less the weapons to fight World War III. I think that the Russia and China twin menace has suddenly opened the government's eyes, but it is really too late to do anything about it. It'll take years, if not decades to rebuild what ahs been lost.
