Donald J. Trump

The carrier is still the principal platform.

Now I'm biased because I spent 29 years when I was at sea, those sea duties on carriers.

And I know and understand

capabilities of those carriers and the difficulty of an enemy to try to sink a carrier.

So as I said in the earlier segments, the Navy has had a defensive mindset.

Our good friend Eric Prince just even highlighted the fact that we have missiles coming at our platforms.

And so we're constantly wondering about if we're going to take a hit.

But what I, again, heard President Trump say last week is,

We have to be able to take a hit and keep fighting.

And so right now, the carrier is the principal platform that can lash up with new technologies that you'll hear about and strike the enemy at great distance.

But hang on.

I'm going to go back to everyone else over here in a moment, but I've got to ask you.

You essentially...

gave up one of the most promising careers around as a naval intelligence officer because you had the courage to warn the American elite that they weren't building a navy that was – that the Chinese Communist Party was stealing a march on us to build a navy they could actually take on and destroy the United States Navy.

Hasn't their focus been how to take down and close combat off the coast of China and around Taiwan, which we must defend, and the Three Island Chains to destroy carrier – I mean, haven't they totally focused on how you destroy carrier battle groups?

And that makes us even more vulnerable, sir?

Yes, they call it their counter-intervention strategy in Chinese.

We call it anti-access area denial or A2AD strategy.

But make no mistake, what we're seeing this last year with the carriers operating east of Guam towards Hawaii, the new unveiling of this Fujian aircraft carrier that is launching fifth generation J-35 stealth fighters with electromagnetic aircraft launch systems, that's not just designed to win the fight inside the first and second island chain.

That is a Navy that is going to have