With defense budget cuts on the way, analysts, politicians, and casual observers agree they will be deep and broad. Equipment and systems acquisition programs, manning, military healthcare, and an unsustainable retirement system lie on the table for major revisions. The coming reductions are part of what Admiral John C. Harvey called “permanent whitewater” at the August 2011 Surface Navy Association West conference in San Diego. He defined the term as a period of prolonged financial, political, and military uncertainty. Despite expected heavy weather and rough seas ahead, Harvey maintains that it is the Navy’s “choices, not circumstances, that determine the future and that drive [its] destiny.”
