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Post by ferryfast admin on Feb 12, 2006 1:57:56 GMT -5
Navy fighting terrorism under water
Sunday, February 12, 2006 By Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service
WASHINGTON -- The demise of the Cold War threatened to beach the U.S. Navy's prized fleet of nuclear submarines, but the admirals are now mapping ambitious plans to refit the underwater Navy for clandestine operations in the global war on terrorism.
The new idea: fleets of submarines carrying newly created U.S. Marine special-operation units, which can be covertly landed at hot spots around the world, and have their beachheads backed up with submarine-launched cruise missiles. To find the money for the program, the admirals intend early retirement for the USS John F. Kennedy carrier. That would then mean an 11-carrier Navy.
The admirals are dyspeptic about the fleet's diminished role in the fighting in landlocked Afghanistan and Iraq, and fear the service is heading for hard times unless new roles are found for Navy ships.
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