Storm Clouds on the Horizon

The U.S. Navy has just issued a new manual to better maintain its ships. At the same time, the Obama Administration has ordered defense cuts of $500B over the next 10 years. In fact, defense is about the only thing that he is cutting. How do you think that the Navy's newfound stewardship will fare in this environment? A more basic question is how important is the Navy to the nation's defense in the year's ahead and how should the budget reflect this assessment? The answer is that the Navy is very important yet the budget does not reflect this reality at all.


Water covers 80% of the globe and 80% of the world's population lives within 250 miles of an ocean coastline. We import the majority of our raw materials, not to mention oil. To cover this, the Navy currently has 286 active ships of all types. During the 1980s under President Reagan the total was just under 600 ships. Nuclear carriers are now down to 11 from 14. Navy ships are being tasked in all the oceans of the world to deal with China, Iran, Afghanistan, and numerous smaller countries as well as terrorist groups operating all around the globe, yet the budgetary tea leaves foretell even fewer ships in the future to keep the peace.


Robert Kaplan is an astute author of books and articles on national defense. He makes a sobering comment that the next President would do well to heed:


“A great navy is like oxygen: You notice it only when it is gone. But the strength of a nation’s sea presence, more than any other indicator, has throughout history often been the best barometer of that nation’s power and prospects … In our day, carrier strike groups, floating in international waters only a few miles off enemy territory, require no visas or exit strategies”

The barometer is falling - rapidly. 

www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/asd/2012/03/26/08.xml&headline=U.S.%20Navy%20Manual%20Details%20New%20Focus&channel=defense 

www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/mckeon-calls-obama-defense-cuts-a-strategy-founded-on-hope-1-.html