Navy Under Secretary Thomas Modly said Tuesday it remains unknown what budget cuts will be necessary to refuel the aircraft carrier USS Truman but that DOD is now searching “across all the services’ budgets” for its options, USNI News reported.
The Navy had requested to retire the nuclear-powered Truman in its fiscal 2020 budget request in favor of modernization initiatives, but last week Vice President Mike Pence announced the White House had decided to keep the carrier without offering solutions for the cost.
“What I’m hearing is that they’re going to look for other ways to fund some of the modernization,” Modly said after speaking at the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space symposium.
The Navy had planned on $4 billion in savings by not refueling the Truman, instead focusing on research and development of unmanned platforms and next-generation weapons. The decision to refuel the Truman has now put some of those initiatives at risk, according to the report.
Modly said with the refueling he did not expect that all the investments into future weapons would be cut, but he also could not say that all the planned investments would be protected.
Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Sarah Villegas