Anchors aweigh
The country’s blue-water Navy
NEWS FROM this growing cold war (lower-case, for now) with Red China continues trending toward more capital letters.
This time, the Associated Press reports that U.S. Navy ships are spending so much time at port getting fixed that they’re recording fewer steamer hours. They’re not at sea—where they should be, for many reasons, the least of which being the valuable experience at sea for the ships and their crews.
The AP lede called growing maintenance delays and their costs a “troubling trend,” noting the U.S. is struggling to keep up with China’s growing fleet.
The Government Accountability Office released a report on the condition of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet that said operating and support costs grew by $2.5 billion across 10 ship classes and the number of “propulsion hours” recorded by ships in operations and training mode dipped in a 10-year period ending in 2021.
The report also found increased maintenance delays, breakdowns and cannibalization of parts. If Red China has these problems, it would never say.
Questions come to mind: Are U.S. leaders truly confident that the American blue-water Navy is in proper fighting shape? Has emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion robbed U.S. fighting forces of focus, stripped it of the will to fight if doing so becomes necessary? Bonus question: Has the GAO ever issued a report with good news?
It’s better that the cold, hard truth be laid bare, and it’s not like our would-be enemies don’t know all this, anyway. A GAO official told the AP that the Navy’s leadership understands a problem exists and is working to make improvements.
“It’s encouraging that it’s not business as usual,” she said.
That “business as usual” for the vaunted U.S. Navy had been reduced to status quo is troubling, to say the least.
More nuggets from the report: “Persistent sustainment challenges have worsened” with “maintenance delays and deferred maintenance” . . . “worsening ship conditions” . . . “increased costs to repair and sustain ships.”
The Navy response to the GAO’s recommendations wasn’t exactly encouraging. Of the 164 ships assigned to Naval Surface Forces, not including aircraft carriers, submarines or sealift ships, the Navy’s goal is to get to 75 ships being mission-capable.
We appreciate the GAO’s recommendations, the Navy said in its response to the report, and maintaining 75 mission-ready ships is an imperative.
Not exactly Knute Rockne, or even Houston Nutt. Bringing down the Navy’s grade are the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships and the littoral combat ships (the latter of which includes the soon-to-be-decommissioned USS Little Rock). These two ships experienced the greatest number of “casualties,” the report found.
Experiencing long maintenance delays were the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
China now has a larger fleet than the United States. Presumably, one in working order. And other potential threats to U.S. security (Russia, North Korea, Iran, terrorists) necessitate a functioning Navy that can get anywhere on the globe faster than anyone else.
At this rate, the aliens who send those tic-tacs to tease Navy pilots are going to look for another Navy to goof around with. The next GAO report will look at the Navy’s submarine fleet. Let’s hope the Navy fares better below the surface.