Rumors are being circulated in the U.S. Military that the Pentagon is planning a highly political downsizing of the U.S. Military driven by politics and justified on Budget uncertainty.
The plan calls for rewarding states and unions that supported President Obama in the last election by continuing new ship building programs, and instead down sizing the Active duty military by decommissioning ships like the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier half way through it's life.
The Nuclear Powered Navy must re-fuel Aircraft Carriers and Submarines once, sometime in the range of 50% to 60% through their life span. The refueling and re-fit is very expensive, not as expensive as a new Carrier but a substantial percentage of that.
This plan would have many political benefits to politicians who wish to permanently transfer funds from the Military side of the U.S. government budget to the Civilian side of the U.S. Government budget, in a manner that is near impossible to reverse at an affordable price.
It also would have tremendous benefits to politicians who want to permanently downsize the U.S. Military capability in a way that could not be easily reversed by a future election.
It also has the benefit of being able to be initiated without Congressional approval thanks to the Sequester.
Under such a plan the President would simply refuse to refuel the nuclear navy sighting "budget uncertainties". The President would also refuse to send Air Craft carriers on patrol. These steps have both already been taken.
The re-fueling stations would only be used to decommission ships, thus allowing the very rapid irrevocable decommissioning of ships like the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Lincoln making it impossible to reverse the decommissioning decision after a future election. The actual decommissioning of a ship half way through it's life cycle would likely take Congressional approval either by a Republican congress as part of a middle of a night deal, or after the next election if the Democrats re-took the House.
The highly skilled and expensively trained Active duty sailors needed to man the current Nuclear Navy could be discharged this year and next. The navy is already authorized to reduce active duty sailors, but the Navy, at the direction of the President get's to choose which sailors get discharged this year and next.
The reason this information is leaking out is that planning for just such a massive downsizing of the men ( and women ) needed to man the nuclear navy is apparently being done right now. At the advanced stage that such planning is being done hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers must be consulted.
The following discusses the preliminary steps that are being taken publicly that allow such a downsizing of the sailors who man an active duty nuclear navy immediately, the article does not mention such a downsizing of nuclear navy personnel however:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/navy/