Plan To Retire USS Truman Early Makes No Sense–Which Is Why The Navy Doesn’t Really Want To Do It (From Forbes)

Congress is pushing back on the wrongheaded proposal to retire one of the Navy’s large-deck aircraft carriers prematurely. That probably won’t upset the sea service, which was pressured by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to reduce the carrier force to ten flattops even though the law requires 11 and the service says it actually needs 12. Rumors of carrier vulnerability are greatly exaggerated, whereas the operational problems of cutting to ten are not widely understood. Truman should stay in the fleet doing its job in defense of the nation through mid-century. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.