[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 20 (Thursday, February 16, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S1431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WARNER:
  S. 2310. A bill to repeal the requirement for 12 operational aircraft 
carriers within the Navy; to the Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce an important 
piece of legislation related to our Navy and National Security.
  The Department of Defense has submitted its report to the Congress on 
the Quadrennial Defense Review for 2005 and, as we are all well aware, 
in the 4 years since the previous Quadrennial Defense Review.
  The global war on terror has dramatically broadened the demands on 
our naval combat forces. In response, the Navy has implemented 
fundamental changes to fleet maintenance and deployment practices that 
have increased total force availability, and it has fielded advances in 
ship systems, aircraft, and precision weapons that have provided 
appreciably greater combat power than 4 years ago.
  These commendable efforts reflect the superb skills, resolve, and 
dedication of the men and women of our Armed Forces, as they adapt to 
the added dimension of international terror while providing for the 
security of our Nation.
  However, we must consider that the Navy is at its smallest size in 
decades, and the threat of emerging naval powers superimposed upon the 
Navy's broader mission of maintaining global maritime security, 
requires that we modernize and expand our Navy.
  The longer view dictated by naval force structure planning requires 
that we invest today to ensure maritime dominance 15 years and further 
in the future; investment to modernize our aircraft carrier force with 
21st century capabilities, to increase our expeditionary capability, to 
maintain our undersea superiority, and to develop the ability to 
penetrate the littorals with the same command we possess today in the 
open seas.
  The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review impresses these critical 
requirements against the backdrop of the national defense strategy and 
concludes that the Navy must build a larger fleet. The Navy, in its 
evaluation of the future threat, has determined that a force level of 
313 ships, 32 ships greater than today's operational fleet, is required 
to maintain decisive maritime superiority.
  These findings are in whole agreement with previous concerns raised 
by Congress as the rate of shipbuilding declined over the past 15 
years. Now we must finance this critical modernization, and in doing so 
we must strike an affordable balance between existing and future force 
structure.
  The centerpiece of the Navy's force structure is the carrier strike 
group, and the evaluation of current and future aircraft carrier 
capabilities by the Quadrennial Defense Review has concluded that 11 
carrier strike groups provide the decisively superior combat capability 
required by the national defense strategy. Carefully considering this 
conclusion, we must weigh the risk of reducing the naval force from 12 
to 11 aircraft carriers against the risk of failing to modernize the 
naval force.
  Maintaining 12 aircraft carriers would require extending the service 
life and continuing to operate the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67). The 
compelling reality is that today the 38-year-old USS John F. Kennedy 
(CV-67) is not deployable without a significant investment of 
resources. Recognizing the great complexity and risks inherent to naval 
aviation, there are real concerns regarding the ability to maintain the 
Kennedy in an operationally safe condition for our sailors at sea. In 
the final assessment, the costs to extend the service life and to make 
the necessary investments to deploy this aging aircraft carrier in the 
future prove prohibitive when measured against the critical need to 
invest in modernizing the carrier force, the submarine force, and the 
surface combatant force.
  We in the Congress have an obligation to ensure that our brave men 
and women in uniform are armed with the right capability when and where 
called upon to perform their mission in defense of freedom around the 
world. Previously, we have questioned the steady decline in naval force 
structure, raising concerns with regard to long term impacts on 
operations, force readiness, and the viability of the industrial base 
that we rely upon to build our Nation's Navy. Accordingly, I am 
encouraged by and strongly endorse the Navy's vision for a larger, 
modernized fleet, sized and shaped to remain the world's dominant 
seapower through the 21st century.
  However, to achieve this expansion while managing limited resources, 
it is necessary to retire the aging conventional carriers that have 
served this country for so long. To this end, Mr. President, I offer 
this legislation which would amend section 5062 of Title 10, United 
States Code to eliminate the requirement for the naval combat forces of 
the Navy to include not less than 12 operational aircraft carriers.
                                 ______