I'm really not sure how I feel about this. I just get the sense that it is a bad idea, and if the US is that hard-up for money, then things are a lot worse than we are being told.
Considering the sailing times, unless the Navy starts deploying HSV's big-time, I just can't envision how it is "faster" to get to the Gulf from either coast than from, say, the Indian Ocean.
Having been on a number of floats, I fully understand the hardships involved, but I can't justify or accept what I see as a strategic retreat for all the wrong reasons.
The Corps has usually been in a position to strike from the sea when and where it was needed; I can't think of more than a handful of times when that was not the case.
All in all, I don't see this as a positive thing. |