Greenert: Navy Faces Support Shortfalls, Maintenance Backlogs

Shrunken but stable Defense Department budgets through fiscal 2015 allow the Navy an acceptable forward presence and have temporarily restored critical training and operations, but the force still faces shortfalls, backlogs and higher risks, the chief of naval operations said today.

Navy Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert joined Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Jr. and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify on the Navy’s fiscal year 2015 budget request.

“Forward presence is our mandate. We operate forward to give the president the options to deal promptly with contingencies,” Greenert told the panel, directing their attention to small charts he gave them showing the global distribution of deployed ships, bases and support areas.

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