Replies

A lot of the maintenance issues started about that time as well as the cuts. The JFK's Ship Lift Extension Program was botched, America was denied S.L.E.P. and was literally ran to death early, JFK after S.L.E.P. was unofficially a reserve ship meaning lacking funds for maintenance. All of which came to a head immediately after 9/11. We also went from four too one carrier builder.

The nuke powered subs had a service life of about 20-25 years and could not be extended. When their time was up many were decommissioned with no replacement.

Congress, POTUS, Sec of Defense, and Service Secretaries of the post-Reagan years basically let things start declining and none of them had the ambition nor will to stop the gutting of our military in either party.