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Fatigue and Training Gaps Spell Disaster at Sea, Sailors Warn

In the past two decades, the number of Navy ships has decreased by about 20 percent, though the time they are deployed has remained the same, according to a 2015 report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington research group funded by the Defense Department. The increased burden has fallen disproportionately on the Seventh Fleet.

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Five Big Ideas That Made the Week

The Navy had 271 ships in 2015, 20% fewer than in 1998, and still kept 100 ships out at sea, according to Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment.

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Looming Budget Standoff Has Pentagon, Defense Industry on Edge

Procedural and political hurdles “make it difficult to see how a substantial defense buildup on the order of the $54 billion proposed by the Trump administration can be realized,” said Katherine Blakeley, research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “The wide gulfs between the political parties, and between the defense hawks and the fiscal hawks, will not be closed soon.”

In the absence of a budget deal, defense hawks will seek to pump more money into the overseas contingency operations account, which is not constrained by the BCA caps, Blakeley noted. “Congress’ window for funding defense — and the rest of the government — before the end of the 2017 fiscal year is short and closing fast.”