HEH....Never AsK a Barber If you need a Haircut....

GATES TO NAVY:"Do we really need 11 carrier strike groups for another 30 years when no other country has more than one?" Gates asked the annual conference of the Navy League, a supporters' group.

NAVY TO GATES: Hell YES!

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy told Congress it wants to keep 11 aircraft carriers through 2045, just days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates called into question the need for that many.

"The Navy remains firmly committed to maintaining a force of 11 carriers for the next three decades," Sean Stackley, the service's warship buyer, told the Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee on Thursday.

The 11-carrier force structure is based on "world-wide presence requirements, surge availability, training and exercise, and maintenance" needs, he said in an opening statement.

Gates stirred the waters on Monday with a speech in which he asked whether the United States could afford "a Navy that relies on 3- to 6-billion-dollar destroyers, along with 7-billion-dollar submarines and 11-billion-dollar carriers."

Makes you wonder just WTF the sub titles look like-don't it-I mean as the least among bill payers aka taxed paying American-I would like to know just why would GATES stir up the hornet's military-industrial nest NOW when the PRC Navy is getting or going to get their very own aircraft carrier. Humm. Good luck with that one. (growing pains will be called Major Factor) This will be the second time the Chinese will have had a ship with a rudder that big. The first was before Columbus.