The U.S. commander in charge of the waters off Somalia, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, told CNN on Monday that he thought it would take a force of 61 warships to safeguard the sea lanes just in the Gulf of Aden, compared with the 14 international ships now patrolling off the Horn of Africa. If the U.S. Navy alone had to provide a force that size, it would take every destroyer and cruiser in the fleet, plus three frigates. - Navy TimesThe US Navy's annual budget is approximately $150 Billion. We have the largest, most technologically advanced, most combat-hardened, best trained navy in the world.
And we can't cover the Gulf of Aden.
The Gulf of Aden.
Sometimes, when you deal with an abstract issue (such as the issue of our so-bad-adjectives-can't-adequately-explain-it defense acquisitions process), sometimes a concrete example just crystallizes how fucked up the situation is.
