Twelve Aircraft Carriers

CNN.com - Pentagon planning cuts to fighter jet program - Dec 30, 2004

This article is about defense budget cuts that the Pentagon is investigating. One of the ideas is to possibly retire one of our twelve aircraft carriers early:

"Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, said retiring the Kennedy early would be a mistake.
'When we are at war, it is not a time to reduce carriers,' he said. 'We need 12 carriers. It is the wrong process of allowing the budget to drive our national security policy.'"

Why is it "a given" that we need 12 aircraft carriers?

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