Image: GAO
A brand new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) paints a bleak image of Navy ship availability with an will increase in upkeep delays and issues like use of cannibalized elements and a lower within the variety of hours a ship is accessible for operations or coaching.
GAO reviewed key sustainment metrics for 10 ship lessons and located that from fiscal years 2011 by means of 2021, these lessons confronted persistent and worsening sustainment challenges. Specifically, the variety of upkeep cannibalizations (working elements eliminated and reused elsewhere as a consequence of elements shortages), casualty stories (stories of occasions that impair ships’ skill to do a major mission), and days of upkeep delay (days past the scheduled finish date for depot upkeep) have every elevated, whereas steaming hours (the variety of hours a ship is mostly in an working or coaching standing) have decreased. Additionally, says the watchdog company, regardless of a previous GAO advice to take action, the Navy just isn’t totally or precisely monitoring different metrics—operational availability and materiel availability—that the Department of Defense and the Navy have decided are key to assessing ship effectiveness
Total O&S (working and help) prices elevated by about $2.5 billion from fiscal years 2011 and 2020 for the ten ship lessons GAO examined, together with a $1.2 billion improve in upkeep prices. The Navy additionally added about 33 ships to those lessons. Collectively, the variety of steaming hours for the ships declined over the timeframe.
GAO discovered the common O&S price per steaming hour—used to measure the fee to supply operational steaming hours—throughout the ten ship lessons elevated from fiscal yr 2011 to 2020. Specifically, most ship lessons GAO reviewed skilled a rise in O&S price per steaming hour throughout the timeframe.
The improve in O&S price per steaming hour occurred for a number of causes. First, a lower in steaming hours contributed to the rise in price per steaming hour. Second, GAO’s prior work exhibits that quite a lot of different challenges have elevated sustainment prices for ships, equivalent to upkeep delays which have resulted in some ships deferring upkeep. Over time this case has resulted in worsening ship situations and elevated prices to restore and maintain ships.
