[ad_1]
In February, President Trump released his budget. Among the proposals: the decommissioning of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman ahead of scheduled repairs and refueling in 2024. On Wednesday, Trump changed his mind, tweeting that he was "canceling" the decommissioning that occurred. He had proposed.
I cancel the decommissioning order of the magnificent aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, built in 1998 (quite new) and considered one of the largest and most beautiful in the world. It will be updated at a fraction of the cost of a new one (which is also under construction)!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
May 1, 2019
There are many reasonable arguments on both sides of the issue. For example, the refueling and repair of the Truman maintains the US carrier fleet at 11 am and the repairs maintain the industrial capabilities required to maintain readiness and build future ships.
On the other hand, as Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and other Pentagon officials have said since the release of the draft budget, giving up repairs and refueling would save money. up to $ 30 billion over the next few decades. This money could then be used to develop new technologies and upgrade other capabilities to better meet the changing needs of the military.
As Admiral John Richardson explained earlier this week, the decision not to repair the Truman would leave the Navy resilient to the emergence of new threats: "One thing that characterizes success and failure, I think , is our ability to move. "The most lethal sin we can have right now is to remain stable or stagnant."
But whatever your arguments for or against keeping Truman, it is clear that if Trump were to be seriously reconsidered, the time had come to make that decision before he sent his people to Washington to defend his budget.
His tweet on Tuesday, which comes after defense officials have defended the proposal for weeks, is undermining his own military leadership and his own budget. This is not a great way to gain the congressional support it needs to enact the funding bill.
And since it is unlikely that Congress will find even more billions to hand over to the Pentagon, especially after the Trump administration has considered taking a share of the military budget for its border wall, it will also mean that the White House has actually allocated billions to an aircraft carrier rather than focusing on other technologies better able to cope with the growing threats posed by China and Russia.
In the end, spending those billions to keep the Truman when the Navy will have decided that it would be better to spend that money elsewhere will jeopardize national security and future preparedness to the point of abandoning the plans. and existing operations.
That's exactly what Richardson was warning about.
[ad_2]
Source link