The U.S. Navy Wants To Extend The Lives Of Their Ships

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A 2018 Navy proposal to keep ships in service longer. SOURCE: Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) (Click to expand)

Breaking Defense: Navy Wants Faster Ship Repairs; 70% Of Destroyer Fleet Late

SAN DIEGO: If the Navy ever hopes to reach its goal of a 355-ship fleet, it won’t be by simply building new hulls and launching them. Instead, the admirals have long recognized they’ll have to extend the lives of dozens of ships already long in the tooth — and do so at a time when shipyard space is already stretched and less than half of its ships are able to complete scheduled maintenance on time.

“We’ve really got to get better than what we’re doing today,” Vice Adm. Tom Moore, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, told the West 2019 conference last week. “We’re digging out of a little bit of a maintenance backlog.” Moore and other commanders at the annual event insisted that they were getting better at getting ships in and out of maintenance availabilities, but currently only about 30 percent of destroyers are able to leave the docks on time.

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WNU Editor: Bottom line. The U.S. Navy has to do better in maintaining and repairing its ships.