Navy’s readiness push means longer maintenance for current ships

The Navy’s new five-part plan to prepare new ships for deployment will require more maintenance time for the current fleet.

However, the Naval Systems Command, or NAVSEA, strategy states the Navy must stay on schedule with maintenance to keep the service’s vessels seaworthy and combat-ready.

The new strategy, released Jan. 13, is key to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti’s ambitious goal of having 80% of the fleet ready to deploy at any given time by 2027.

On average, Navy ships remain in dry dock for up to one year, said Vice Adm. Jim Downey, NAVSEA commander, in a Jan. 16 panel at the Surface Navy Association’s symposium near Washington, Defense One reported.

If the new strategy is effective, that yearlong wait could be cut by two-thirds or more, meaning a 100- to 150-day wait for ship repairs, according to Downey, who guided the plan’s development.

That’ll mean extensive planning for work scope, what materials are available and ready for use and building a ready workforce at the same time, said George Whittier, CEO of ship engine company Fairbanks Morse, said on the panel, according to Defense One.

The NAVSEA “Enterprise Strategy” will address five core “lines of effort,” according to the service’s release:

• Accelerate force generation to deliver ships and combat systems.
• Generate readiness to maintain, modernize and sustain platforms.
• Generate, capture and use data to drive innovation.
• Strengthen the Navy team by attracting, retaining and growing the NAVSEA workforce.
• Strengthen the foundation, enhancing NAVSEA critical infrastructure.

“CNO depends on the NAVSEA enterprise to get the Navy’s ships, and their warfighting systems designed, delivered, maintained, and sustained to meet global national security requirements,” Downey said in the release. “So, NAVSEA is accelerating efforts to put more players on the field — that is, platforms, ready with the right capabilities, weapons, and sustainment support.”

The Navy has faced years of maintenance backlogs and ship shortages. In December, the Government Accountability Office found that a shortage of amphibious warfare ships has hindered various Marine deployment and training plans, Marine Corps Times previously reported. From 2011 to 2020, only 46% of the Navy’s amphibious class of ships were available at any given time, according to the government watchdog.

GAO recommended the Navy refine ship availability, build a joint-service plan, update the service’s ship maintenance policies and establish performance goals for implementing the amphibious readiness review recommendations GAO provided.

“Nothing was off the table when we started this process last May,” Downey said of the Navy’s five-part plan.

Downey, who took command of NAVSEA in January 2024, formed a Commander’s Action Group and a Force Improvement Office to have closer management of command priorities and enhance personnel skills and capabilities. The command also restructured its operational centers, according to the release.

In another organizational move, the command “decoupled” positions for its Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, or SUPSHIP, and its Industrial Operations, or SEA 04, according to the release. That allows the individual heads of the two areas for a more focused approach to their core duties.

“With more than 90 ships under contract, SUPSHIP has an expansive level of responsibility,” said Downey. “This new realignment puts SUPSHIP in a better position to oversee and administer the Navy’s new construction programs across the directorate.”