Rick Berger, RCD: Fixing the Navy’s Carrier Gap
For almost two months, the United States Navy has operated without its required aircraft carrier in the Middle East and Europe. These continual carrier “presence gaps” should not surprise us; they represent a voluntary choice by a Navy asked to do too much with too little for too long. And while Pentagon leadership and combatant commanders have agreed for years that the Navy requires at least twelve carriers to keep three deployed at any one time, appropriators long ago failed to fund a carrier fleet of that size. Today, President Trump and the Republican Congress have signaled their intent to repair the U.S. military, but no easy or quick fixes exist for America’s aircraft carrier fleet. Reconstituting a healthy carrier force requires an understanding of the real problem, followed by several short-term actions and a generational commitment to America’s premier power projection force.
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WNU Editor: The U.S. Navy's newest carrier .... Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) .... begins sea trials next month .... Carrier Gerald R. Ford Heads to Sea Next Month; Commissioning Later This Year (USNI News).
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