Our Navy is Broken, and That is a Bad Thing

The recent string of ship collisions in the western Pacific is a clarion call to the American nation that its Navy is on the brink of combat ineffectiveness. This dismal condition is the result of a long string of irresponsible budgetary actions and strategic mistakes on the part of the nation’s leaders. While it is true that the string of mishaps has, thus far, been limited to one region of the world, the underlying contributing factors of a steady demand for 85-100 deployed ships, a shrinking fleet, and shorter and inadequately resourced maintenance and training periods are eroding the fleet’s effectiveness everywhere. The unique stresses of the western Pacific simply present the ships operating there as the canaries in the proverbial coal mine.

Read the full op-ed in Defense One.