Donald Rumsfeld's plans to downsize the Navy by retiring one Aircraft Carrier was made a year ago while the number of military personel will also decrease at a small fraction as well. I can't find the internet source anywhere but it was certainly in the Time Magazine Edition of 2003.

This plan is not strange or surprising at all. NATO, EU, China, are downsizing their total number of military personel dramatically as well.

The JFK is, well, ancient anyway, and incredibly expensive to maintain due to its conventional power plant...which also severely limits its operational range away from support vessels

Better technology leads to smaller demands for manpower.

They should maintain the current size or possibly even add more people and more aircraft carriers.

You know I'd like to see all the United States aircraft carriers starting from the biggest going out all sailing towards you in a row. The sight would be spectacular.

Now cuting personnel is one thing. Getting the Navy organized enough to have a group of carriers together for a photoshot is a whole different matter.....Something would probably happen and they would have to split.



But are they actualy adding anu more ships when they start cutting the personnel?

EagleStrikeWrote:

They should maintain the current size or possibly even add more people and more aircraft carriers.

You know I'd like to see all the United States aircraft carriers starting from the biggest going out all sailing towards you in a row. The sight would be spectacular.

I've said this before in another topic. The military is definetily not a showcase. It's more important to focus on the situation and budget implications rather than "looks".

I don't think there is a problem with them cutting some men and equipment. Our Navy is already extremely powerful and no other country comes close to it.

The British Royal Navy and the French Navy have close similarities with the US Navy. So in this case, there are nations that have close comparisons with the US Navy one point or another.

And one thing, size does not necessarily meant power.

The Navy has started producing some advanced weapons now. So maybe downsizing will let them produce even more advanced weapons...

IMHO we should cut back on how many bombs we use and focus on equipping our troops on the ground THEN worry about the stuff we drop... a set of eyes with a rifle is a lot more effective than a quarter million dollar peice of steel...