USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) 2020
The US Navy continues to go the way of the Royal Navy from a storied force in history to a surface fleet plagued with problems and seemingly incapable of getting anything right as we have documented in these pages at the Institute. The Ford carrier that can’t reliably launch and retrieve aircraft, the Little Crappy Ship fiasco and the ungainly and ugly Zumwalt class destroyer.
Furthermore, the fleet is aging. As ships become older, they become more expensive and difficult to maintain. Ships are being tied in up in compounded maintenance delays, taking numerous ships off the line. Copious maintenance delays for the surface fleet resulted in less than 68 percent surface fleet ships deemed “mission-capable,” last year. Submarines face a similar situation, with just 63 percent of attack submarines available in the last year, further shrinking the true size of our Navy.
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/americas-incredible-shrinking-navy/
In addition to the effectiveness of the U.S. Navy from these problems, these breakdowns, extended refits, and maintenance issues are costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
It is a problem that has been years in the making and likely will take years to resolve. As Rollcall.com reported in 2019, the warnings from government watchdog groups have signaled the problem but lawmakers and service officials have done little to address it.
“Indeed, for at least the past 15 years, the Navy has only once declined to accept a ship because of defects, despite regularly having cause to do so,” the 2019 report warned. “Quality control will become more critical than ever in the years ahead.”
We’re seeing that already, as numerous programs are also running late. The U.S. Navy is not only at its smallest size since before the First World War, it hasn’t been this unprepared for a conflict since the late 19th century. Back then, there weren’t really any major adversaries that had their eyes on America. The same isn’t true today.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/navy-looks-its-serious-sinking-decline-212644
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