In a testy exchange with lawmakers on Capitol Hill today, U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Locklear defended the Navy's need for a fleet of 11 nuclear aircraft carriers. During a House Armed Services Committee hearing with combatant commanders on the Pentagon's budget request, which was unveiled on March 4, ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA) called the 11-carrier fleet into question, noting that "a lot of folks very high up in the Navy [think that they] could survive, quite easily,...
