A Stretched Navy And A Fiscal Disconnect

[Draggingtree]

Hoover Institute

A Stretched Navy And A Fiscal Disconnect

by Admiral Gary Roughead

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

 Last year, within two weeks’ time, two deadly collisions of U.S. Navy ships in western Pacific sea-lanes brought home the reality of a Navy in increasing demand yet stretched precariously thin. The captains and those responsible on watch those nights, as they operated in congested Asian waters, were held to account, but it remains the nation that has allowed and accepted the conditions that led to those tragic events and the loss of 17 sailors. As articulated in a review of those incidents that I co-led, it has been a long road to the current level of reduced readiness, and it will not be turned around quickly.

In Strategika #31 (April 2016), I addressed the implications of lack of capacity, the numbers of things that contribute to military power. Sadly, the shrinking number of ships in the U.S. fleet led to the pace of operations and the compromises made to meet the growing operational demands. Those demands will continue to be made as the Navy grapples with meeting our global security obligations.