Over A Weekend, US Navy Shrinks By 9 Ships
Something odd happened to the US Navy a few days ago. Somewhere between February and March, the fleet lost nine ships.
The web page where the service lists its vital statistics — number of people, number of ships, etc. — showed a fleet of 284 ships as Feb. 27 came to a close. But on March 2, that same fleet was officially listed as 275 ships.
But no real ships were decommissioned, sold, sunk or otherwise disposed of. So what happened?
. . .The Democratic administration likes to point out the fleet is growing since it dropped below the 300-ship level in August 2003 — under the administration of President George W. Bush — hitting a low of 275 ships in early May 2007. . .
A year ago, the administration altered the way it counts the fleet, adding some ships not previously counted, resulting in a jump from 283 ships to 290. Opponents on the Hill cried foul, arguing the Navy was artificially inflating the fleet’s size, and inserted language into the 2015 Defense Authorization Act to force the service to return to the old rules. It’s those new — uh, old — requirements that the Navy has just implemented. (Read more from “Over A Weekend, US Navy Shrinks By 9 Ships” HERE)
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