The fire aboard the US Navy amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard in San Diego raises profound questions about the competence and capacity of the service and its leadership — with budget, strategy and deterrence implications.
As the USS Theodore Roosevelt saga winds down, the incentive to get back to “business as usual basis” builds. Were that to happen, it would be a colossal error.
The TR incident comes in the wake of too many seeming errors, mistakes and scandals that have befallen the Navy. These demand that crucial questions must now be addressed about the overall condition of the Navy that have led to what some including the president and the secretary of Defense believe is a service that is badly adrift.
Fortunately, the relatively new Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, has not been tainted by any of the scandals or problems and therefore is the right person at the right time to dig more deeply into resolving these symptoms of naval ill-health.
The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) has been at sea one of every two days since returning to service in October, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said Tuesday, continuing evidence that the ship is meeting or exceeding expectations.
Tom Modly, the under secretary of the US Navy, discusses the service’s new Educating for Seapower or E4S plan to improve officer and enlisted education to grow more strategic, thoughtful leaders as the critical advantage in great power competition and fields questions about the reported retirement of the USS Harry S. Truman with 30 more years of service life remaining and the rational for shifting resources from purchasing two more San Antonio-class amphibious ships toward more survivable platforms like submarines with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in his office at the Pentagon.