The secretary took questions from sailors and Marines on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Essex
Asked for his views on the Navy downsizing,
The term "downsizing" leaves a misunderstanding in people's minds, he said.
the Navy was forced again to scale back its plans to increase ship procurement. Instead of buying eight ships next year, as called for in prior plans, the Navy will buy only six.
At that rate, the Navy's fleet will soon shrink from today's 315 ships to about 230. While the exact number of ships required is under study, Rumsfeld said, "It is very clear it is considerably more than 230 ships."
Navy officials blamed the problem on a lack of money and delays in the development of two kinds of ships that made their procurement unrealistic this year.
"We'd like to build more ships," one Navy official said. "But given the money we had, this was the optimum mix."
"....." never campaigned on a specific pledge to substantially increase defense spending. He talked often about skipping a generation of weapons to fund new programs, while leaving details to a Pentagon study. The results of that study are expected later this summer.
I'll leave the details to those who support Obama's plans...
but I really question how this is "forward"... the names may change,.. but the plan is the same..