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#Gates #defense budget: back to 1963? 1975? 1993?

  1. This defense budget is a liberal dream, the rolling back of scores of hitherto invulnerable mega-programs. but …
  2. It remains to be seen what the budget will actually be after Congress gets done saving programs that protect jobs in the midst of the worst recession since 1945.
  3. People seem to forget that these defense spending waves are cyclical. A surge of dovish sentiment and force reduction in the 70s was followed by the Reagan rearmament. How much do you want to bet that we see another spending surge in 2017?

      Defense Secretary Gates just proposed the most sweeping overhaul of America’s arsenal — and of the Pentagon budget — in decades.  Major weapons programs, from aircraft carriers to next-gen bombers to new school fighting vehicles, will be cut back, or eliminated. Billions more will be put into growing the American fighting force, both human and robotic.

      via Gates Proposes Radical Overhaul of Pentagon Arsenal | Danger Room from Wired.com.

      Repairs complete, CVN-73 George Washington heads to Japan

      Back in the saddle again! These several months worth of repairs were caused by damage less severe than a single missile hit.

      Repairs complete, the GW heads to Japan | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
      The carrier George Washington [CVN-73] left San Diego on Thursday, bound once again for Japan after undergoing several months of repairs caused by a shipboard fire.

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      David Axe aboard Kearsarge

      Nimble Books author David Axe is aboard the U.S.S. Kearsarge for two weeks.

      War Is Boring
      She’s 41,000 tons of fun. 844 feet long and 106 feet wide, USS Kearsarge, the third Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, joined the fleet in 1993.

      Russians building 5-6 new aircraft carriers (beginning 2012 …)

      This will be significant if it happens.

      Part of what’s going on here is jostling for position in a warming Arctic Ocean. A few Russian carriers in an unfrozen Arctic Ocean would make a difficult challenge for the U.S. and Canada. We would struggle to extend carrier power into an ocean that is literally surrounded by Russian airbases.

      Russia to rejuvenate its navy – International Herald Tribune

      Russia will build five or six aircraft carrier battle groups in the near future, the RIA news agency quoted a navy commander, Vladimir Vysotsky, as saying at Navy Day festivities in St Petersburg.

      “We call this a sea-borne aircraft carrier system that will be based on the Northern and Pacific fleets,” Vysotsky said. “The creation of such systems will begin after 2012.”