Former Pentagon Officials: U.S. Navy is ‘Strained’

The Hill reported that Seth Cropsey, who served as deputy undersecretary of the Navy for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and retired Marine Col. Mark Cancian both recently made similar assessments of the Navy.

Their comments come just after a Navy official publicly acknowledged last week that there will be gaps in the presence of U.S. aircraft carriers in both the Middle East and East Asia regions at points next year.

Since the Navy removed the USS Theodore Roosevelt from the Persian Gulf last month, the U.S. has had no carrier in the sea, the first such instance since 2007. However, Cropsey described the entire Navy fleet, not just the aircraft carriers, as experiencing strain.