The United States Navy

Perhaps the most difficult challenge facing the Navy in 1999 is the need to ensure that our Sailors and their families enjoy a quality of life that is commensurate with their personal commitments of service to America, to ensure that the Fleet’s readiness is sustained at levels needed to meet the nation’s global commitments, and to provide sufficient resources to ensure that tomorrow’s ships, aircraft, submarines, weapons, and sensors will be able to meet the daunting forward-presence, crisis-response, and warfighting requirements of the future. For the first time since Fiscal Year 1985, the President has requested a Department of Defense budget that keeps ahead of inflation and seeks to fund our most serious concerns. For the Navy, our most critical needs will indeed be met, but resources remain constrained, requiring difficult decisions and trade-offs, as we continue on our course into the 21st century.


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