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...see4 Navy air wings grounded, 8 deployments canned
Posted : Sunday Mar 3, 2013 9:30:11 EST
With no budget deal by deadline, the Navy announced some drastic actions Saturday in the face of sequestration.
Four air wings are set to be grounded and eight ship deployments have been cancelled — including one already underway. The moves will help save the service $10 billion, the amount cut this year due to automatic spending cuts triggered by Congress.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said these drastic actions will still preserve the Navy’s presence overseas.
Related reading:
Budget cuts may spur involuntary separations (2/27)
On Capitol Hill, top brass blast sequestration (2/12)
“The lack of a legislative solution to avoid sequestration is deeply regrettable,” Mabus said in the message. “That said, we must endeavor to deal with the situation as we face it, not as we wish it could otherwise be.”
The cuts, detailed in Mabus’ message, will start to be felt almost immediately in aviation. Officials are preparing to ground at least four air wings, starting in April — a move that will drastically reduce the Navy’s aviation readiness, with four of the nine air wings grounded and two more operating at minimum safe flying levels. Top Navy officials have warned that it will take the better part of the year — and up to three times the cost — to return these air wings to full readiness.
The four air wings to be grounded are Carrier Air Wing 2, with the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group; Carrier Air Wing 9, with Stennis CSG; Carrier Air Wing 17, with Vinson CSG; and Carrier Air Wing 7, with Eisenhower CSG.
In addition, the two air wings dropping to a “tactical hard deck” are Carrier Air Wing 1, with the Theodore Roosevelt CSG; and Carrier Air Wing 11, with Nimitz CSG. Basic flight training for pilot and flight officer trainees will halt in March.
The Navy has already cancelled one CSG deployment — that for the Truman CSG, announced two days before it was to deploy in early February — and warned that many more would come if budget cuts hit. Mabus disclosed those ships Saturday.
Seven ships have had their upcoming deployment cancelled for budget reasons:
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2013/03/n ... ed-030313/
for the name of these ships...