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In January 2010, Heritage published a report titled, "The State of the U.S. Military." Citing data from the Naval History and Heritage Command, a part of the Defense Department, the report said that "the U.S. Navy’s fleet today contains the smallest number of ships since 1916. The total number of active ships in the Navy declined from 592 to 283 between 1989 and 2009."
In 1916, the U.S. Navy had 245 active ships, a number that eventually peaked during World War II, then fell, then peaked again more modestly during the Korean War, followed by a slow, consistent decline over the next five decades.
In recent years, the number of active ships has fallen low enough to approach its 1916 level.
In both 2009 and 2011, the number was 285.
However, even using this metric which is an imperfect one for measuring military strength, this is not the lowest level since 1916.
The same data set shows that during the years 2005 to 2008, the number of active ships was 282, 281, 278 and 282, respectively, each of which were below the levels of 2009, 2010 and 2011.
In other words, each of the final four years under George W. Bush saw lower levels of active ships than under Obama.
The number of surface warships also bottomed out in 2005 under Bush, later rising by about 10 percent under Obama.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...omney-says-us-navy-smallest-1917-air-force-s/
