Navy's Lessening Power Worries Joint Chiefs Chair
In a period described as one of "very dangerous times" the debate in America over how much will be spent on national security is something many are following with concern.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently told a Washington audience that it is time for "a national debate about how much we want to spend on our security in these very dangerous times."
A disturbing development to many observers is a decline in the Navy's carrier force even during wartime and with unsettled problems in many areas of the world.
Congress should start the national discussion on defense spending by insisting the Navy keep a dozen carriers in service, and supplying the necessary funds, Ed Feulner, Heritage Foundation president, declared. The Navy now is down to 10 active carriers, a long way from the 15 it estimated during the 1980s that it would need.
The carrier is identified as a critical tool in the U.S. military arsenal, "an irreplaceable asset that allows our military to project power anywhere, any time." It has been compared to a floating city, able to generate enough electricity to light 100,000 homes. It can purify 400,000 gallons of water daily and carries enough food to feed its crew for three months at sea. As many as four jets can take off every minute.
Last year, however, Congress decided the United States could maintain only 11 carriers. Now, in another attempt to save money, the Navy says it can probably get by with just 10 carriers for a while before it adds a new ship in 2015.
Overall, today's Navy consists of only 280 deployable vessels.
That is one-third less than experts predicted the United States would need in the 1980s.
"Is the world really one-third safer than it was a generation ago?" Feulner asked. "Let's hope so, because we have just half the number of ships we had at sea 15 years ago."
Things may be even worse than those figures suggest.
In the years ahead, at least one carrier will be out of service at any given time for what is called a "Refueling and Complex Overhaul." That means our active fleet already is at 10 carriers, Feulner said, so decommissioning another one would actually leave the Navy with nine in service at any given time.
"That's simply not enough," he declared.
Lawmakers are given the power of the purse by the Constitution, so it is their responsibility to provide for the common defense.
Lawmakers are given the power of the purse by the Constitution, so it is their responsibility to provide for the common defense.
"That means maintaining a powerful Navy," Feulner said. "Lawmakers should insist the Navy keep 12 carriers in service."
Speeding up the shipbuilding process is one way to do that. The next carrier is set to be finished in 2015, but it could be christened years sooner if Congress would place construction on a wartime footing. Since the nation is at war, that would make sense. By hiring extra workers and running three shifts, the Navy could get the next carrier into service by 2012.
Another factor to consider is that other countries are not standing still. China is building submarines at a rapid pace and could have five times as many subs in the Pacific by 2025 as the United States.
"There's no reason for China to become our enemy," Feulner said, "But there's also no excuse for Congress to allow our Navy to be so outgunned, just in case the Chinese become aggressive."
Building and repairing ships is costly, but it is more expensive in the long run to start from scratch, it is pointed out. Once shipyards close, it is difficult to open them again since the skilled workers move on to other jobs.
Maintaining America's military strength is vital to national defense as potential new superpowers emerge. There is a cost to staying militarily strong, but potentially a far greater one that nobody wants to experience from neglecting regular upgrades.
