The deadline for submitting budgets to OSD is Thursday, the senior defense official said, adding that the Navy's will not incorporate the cuts. Ultimately that means that Carter's budget wonks will have to do the cutting themselves and the Navy may not like what they decide to cut, said Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments…
"The SECNAV's decision is emblematic of the challenge the Navy faced since the BCA was enacted in 2011," Clark said. "Operational demands continue to grow while the fleet remains the same size or shrinks. Ships and their crews don't have time to train and maintain their ships, and they are increasingly reliant on supplemental funding which cannot be planned for in advance.
"SECNAV is essentially drawing a line in the sand that the navy will need to reduce its OPTEMPO and put resources toward capacity, instead of just working the fleet harder to support overseas operations."