House rejects plan to drop carrier requirement to 10 | Navy Times | navytimes.com: The House of Representatives voted Thursday to reject a proposal that would’ve reduced the legal requirement for operational aircraft carriers from 11 to 10.
The Navy has just 10 carriers while waiting commissioning of the Gerald R. Ford — the first of a new class of carriers — which won’t join the fleet until late 2015 or early 2016, under current plans. Congress granted a waiver to the existing 11-carrier requirement as part of the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, allowing the Navy to operate with 10 carriers from the inactivation of the Enterprise in December 2012 until the Ford arrives.
Thursday’s vote came on an amendment to the 2014 defense budget offered by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., that would’ve required the fleet to have 10 carriers but would allow for more.
