There goes your shipbuilding budget, again

I don't think the SECDEF could be more direct.

“I have noticed too much of a tendency towards what might be called next-war-itis — the propensity of much of the defense establishment to be in favor of what might be needed in a future conflict,” Mr. Gates told a conference here sponsored by the Heritage Foundation.

“Over all,” he added, “the kinds of capabilities we will most likely need in the years ahead will often resemble the kinds of capabilities we need today.”

ADM Stavridis, call your office.

As we continue to want to push the Tiffany Navy against this headwind with exaggerated expectations of money falling out of Congress, we should keep in mind the last sentence.

But he warned any adversary against thinking that the United States had dropped its guard, saying that while the Army and the Marines carried the brunt of the nation’s current combat effort, the Air Force and the Navy would be “America’s main strategic deterrent” against potential adversaries like Iran, North Korea and China. He called for careful spending to modernize and expand both of these services.

The next SECDEF will think the same.