Warner Backs Carrier Reduction

In a dramatic about-face, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee decides to back the Navy's plan for retiring USS Kennedy:

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., has introduced legislation repealing language he helped add to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill that barred the Navy from moving forward with plans to retire the USS John F. Kennedy and reduce its carrier fleet to 11 ships.
Warner, a former Navy secretary, has explained his abrupt change of position by saying the money needed to overhaul the Kennedy would be better spent growing the size of the overall Navy fleet from 281 to 313 ships.

This is the right thing to do, and will not affect our defense adversly. More important than giant carriers in the new littoral warfare are ships which can track down Al Qaeda pirates on the high seas and in confined waters.