The Ship Model Forum

gms wrote:They should cut the number of admirals first to show that they mean business.

Memo reveals Pentagon again tried to decommission the carrier Truman, cut an air wing
By: David B. Larter ? 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON � Despite causing a political firestorm earlier this year and forcing President Donald Trump to publicly reverse his administration�s position on the matter, the U.S. military again tried to push a plan that would lead to the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman retiring 25 years early and would defund a carrier air wing, according to a White House memo obtained by Defense News.
The plan, which was killed sometime in November during a back-and-forth between the Pentagon and the White House�s Office of Management and Budget, was recycled from the 2020 budget submission. At the time, the move was framed as a way to pay for investments in unmanned technologies and long-range hypersonic missiles.
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Trump won�t retire aircraft carrier, but House bill would make sure
By: Joe Gould ? 1 day ago
WASHINGTON ? The White House has already canceled its politically unpopular plans to decommission the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman 25 years early as a cost-savings measure ? and now House lawmakers are spiking the football.
Draft legislative language would bar the reduction of the carrier fleet below 11, a number of carriers required by a prior statute. It also adds back $17 million in funding associated with the carrier�s refueling and complex overhaul, and the bill expresses support to grow the carrier fleet to 12.
The bill comes a month after Vice President Mike Pence announced, and President Donald Trump affirmed, that the administration would abandon the plans. After they were proposed in the administration�s fiscal 2020 budget, they sparked powerful bipartisan opposition and a debate over the utility and survivability in the face of China�s emerging long-range precision weapons.
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Navy to Congress: You Need to Let Us Retire Carrier Truman
27 Mar 2019
Military.com | By Gina Harkins
Lawmakers grilled Navy leaders about a plan to send an aircraft carrier into retirement decades early when military leaders around the world are calling for more, not less, naval support.
Members of the House Armed Services seapower subcommittee pressed service leaders on Tuesday to explain why they should get behind cutting short the service life of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.
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Inhofe not on board with plans to shutter aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman
By: Joe Gould and David B. Larter ? 2 days ago

WASHINGTON � The Pentagon�s plans to cut costs by decommissioning the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier hit another powerful roadblock Thursday when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe said he�s not yet convinced.

The Pentagon�s plan is to cancel the planned 2024 midlife refueling to save $30 billion over 25 years, but Inhofe, R-Okla., told acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford and Pentagon Comptroller David Norquist, that he was �a little disturbed� by that scenario.

�I am a little disturbed by the idea that we will be taking the USS Truman out of the system, and I wonder how this will work in our sheer numbers,� Inhofe said.

Inhofe is the latest key lawmaker to cast doubt on the plans. Last month, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., the head of the House Armed Services Committee�s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said he would block the early decommissioning of the Truman as Congress debates the issue in its annual defense policy bill.

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House Seapower chairman: Early aircraft carrier decom is a non-starter
By: Joe Gould and David B. Larter ? 4 days ago
The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman transits the Atlantic Ocean in December. The Navy wants to put Truman on the chopping block to save money, but Congress has signaled that won't happen. (MC2 Scott Swofford/Navy)

The head of the House Armed Services Committee�s seapower subcommittee told Defense News Thursday he would block the early decommissioning of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman when it comes before congress this spring.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., told reporters he there was no chance the measure would be endorsed in his subcommittee this year during the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act markup.

�This is really a 2021 issue in terms of timing, when the Truman has to go into its refueling,� Courtney said. �So I think in terms of it getting any endorsement in the seapower mark this year I think is zero.�

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Amidst rising anxiety over whether the US Navy�s thousand-foot-long flagships could evade Chinese missiles in a future war, the Pentagon has decided to cut the aircraft carrier fleet from 11 today to 10.

By retiring the Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Truman at least two decades early, rather than refueling its nuclear reactor core in 2024 as planned, the military would save tens of billions on overhaul and operations costs that it could invest in other priorities. But the proposal, part of the 2020-2024 budget plan due out mid-March, is sure to inspire outrage on Capitol Hill.