By Zachary Keck
Pressure from the White House and Congress has led the Pentagon to drop a plan to reduce the number of aircraft carriers.
The White House and members of Congress have rejected a proposal by the Pentagon to reduce the size of the U.S. aircraft carrier force as part of its effort to reduce defense spending.
As The Diplomat noted last month, the U.S. Department of Defense and Navy were considering mothballing a U.S. aircraft carrier in the FY 2015 defense budget as they strive to implement Congressionally-mandated spending reductions. The plan called for retiring the USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class nuclear carrier first commissioned in 1992, before its midlife refueling and refurbishing set to begin in 2016. Forgoing the refueling and refurbishing phase would have saved the Pentagon $4.7 billion, although this would be partially offset by the $1.2 billion cost of decommissioning the carrier.
It would also have reduced the U.S. Navy’s carrier force to ten.
Read the full story at The Diplomat