Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy's top officer, told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this month that the Navy cannot keep supporting the war on Iran, because nobody has told him when it ends. Caudle wrote it into the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, the classified twice-monthly account of what America has available to fight with, worldwide. Alex Horton and Tara Copp of the Washington Post reported its contents Sunday, citing people familiar with it. Caudle gave Hegseth the dimmest picture in the book: barely one in four of the Navy's destroyers ready to deploy, a sharp fall from prewar levels.
Three combatant commands and Caudle answered Hegseth's order to extend their forces with a "non-concur" — they disagree, and they will carry it out anyway. Adm. Samuel Paparo objected to the carrier strike group and destroyers Hegseth ordered him to keep supplying Central Command. European Command and Southern Command told Hegseth that lending ships and surveillance planes to the Iran fight has cut their ability to defend the homeland. Army and Air Force leaders agreed to extend, and warned of significant risk. One person familiar with the book told the Post that the operation, at six months, has been "too much for too long."
