Navy will push to keep 12 aircraft carriers.

• Position: Washington Pulse - Letter to the Editor

Despite rumblings about the Navy possibly downsizing its fleet of aircraft carriers, no cutbacks to carrier strike groups are expected in next year's budget, said "vice Rear Adm. (Sel.) Mark Fitzgerald, the Navy's acting director of warfare plans and requirements.

The Navy is gearing up to defend its current force structure--built around 12 aircraft carriers--in the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, about to get under way at the Pentagon. In the QDR, the Navy will set the stage for building "sea bases" around the carriers, Fitzgerald said. "The carrier is the capstone piece for the QDR ... the...