Naval aviators told to tighten belt.

With the cost of operating aircraft rising at a whopping 12 percent a year, U.S. Navy aviation leaders are under growing pressure to cut expenses. This is not welcome news to aviators who traditionally have not had to worry about penny pinching.

"We have to learn to save more and more," said Vice Adm. Michael D. Malone, commander of U.S. naval air forces. Naval aviation has become a "business enterprise where we constantly must know how much things cost," he lamented. He said he was pleased that the cutbacks would not affect the Navy's plans to stick with large-deck carriers, rather than switching to smaller decks. But there will be fewer airplanes in the fleet. Each air wing will have 44 strike fighters, down from 56. Each squadron will drop from 12 to 10 airplanes.