SECDEF Carter’s Plan to Trim U.S. Navy Fleet Size is Dangerous
SECDEF Carter’s Plan to Trim U.S. Navy Fleet Size is Dangerous by Steven Cohen, USNI News
The United States Navy just struck an iceberg. It won’t sink the fleet, but it will damage its ability to deter emerging global conflicts. And one of those challenges became more apparent last week when the Chinese announced it was building its second aircraft carrier.
The navigational hazard was in plain sight. But last month the full danger of its unseen mass hit the Navy in the form of a directive from the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. The Navy Secretary was told in blunt language that the course it was following was wrong, and the sea service needed to change how it spends its money. Instead of building more ships, the Navy should invest in high-end weapons systems such as the F-35 fighter plane and more smart munitions. “While we seek to deter wars,” Carter said, it is more important to “fight and win them.”
Carter is an experienced, highly respected defense professional, and his views on curtailing shipbuilding—his exact words were that the 308-ship target “should be met but not irresponsibly exceeded”—undoubtedly reflect the President who appointed him. But this reallocation of resources will affect naval strategy, the perception of allies and foes alike, and even recruitment tactics. The shift is both shocking and dangerous…
JSOC General Expected to be Next Leader of America’s Special Operations Forces
JSOC General Expected to be Next Leader of America’s Special Operations Forces by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post
… the Army’s two most senior special operations officers, Gen. Joseph Votel and Lt. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, are the Pentagon’s new picks to lead two of its most influential four-star headquarters. The moves are not yet official, but they would put Votel and Thomas in charge of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command respectively, both based in Tampa, Florida.
… Thomas’s promotion, if confirmed, would appear to affirm the primacy not only of special operations within the military, but of JSOC’s hunter-killer units within the bigger special operations community. That trend began under the George W. Bush administration — it was who Bush famously told the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, “JSOC is awesome” — and has only intensified during the Obama years.
Thomas would be the third former JSOC commander in a row to head up SOCOM; the last time a career Green Beret held the post was more than 15 years ago, before the war on terror began, even though Green Berets account for by the far the plurality of SOCOM’s special operators and are seeing increased use from Africa to Afghanistan as the military tries to shape the war efforts of allied militaries and irregular forces…