In his opening statement, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who previously served on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations, noted: "Shipbuilding for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard is the largest single user of American steel for military and homeland defense, with steel making up about half of a warship’s weight. A 100,000-ton aircraft carrier, for example, requires about 48,000 tons of steel, and the fleet overall contains about six million tons of American-made steel." Today, the U.S. Navy is the smallest it's been since 1916. Clark pointed out that America's current fleet is overworked and under-maintained, noting that the timing is troublesome, when terrorist threats such as the Islamic State remain a concern and attacks on Western targets continue.
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