What is the evidence that security situation in Afghanistan will be sufficiently improved by 2017 to allow the ANSF to be reduced by 120,000 troops?

Ladies and gentlemen I will call to order the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Armed Services Committee.

I want to thank you all so much for taking the time out of what I know are busy schedules to help our committee better understand the implications of our 30-year plan for Navy force structure, our defense industrial base and, most importantly, our national security.

I think the perspectives that you all provide are extraordinarily valuable.

I think that is a good point to make sure there is closure there, not just the strategy itself, but how do you hope to accomplish that and maybe have a little longer-term perspective in how that comes to be.

Arleigh Burke class destroyers will start decommissioning in the mid-late 2020s.

Some up here like to argue that we have the smallest Navy since WWI. In reality we now have highly trained, all-volunteer crews that operate the most technologically advanced ships in the world.

We have a documented history of retiring surface combatants early.

per this plan it seems that the Navy is being realistic in understanding that we have some pretty expensive ships being procured, especially once we get in to FY18-FY32.

Mr. Stackley and VADM Blake, in 1983 and 1988 the U.S. Navy entered into block buys for Nimitz class carriers, buying 2 in '83 and 2 in '88.

Does this plan, in an effort to make the FYDP look good, actually open up taxpayers to paying more in the long run for the same number of ships?