The US Navy has lost the equivalent of 17 ships for operational tasking this year due to maintenance backlogs and delays in repair, according to an analysis from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released Wednesday.
“For fiscal years 2012-2018, our analysis for key portions of the Navy fleet shows that 30 percent of Navy maintenance was completed on time, leading to more than 27,000 days in which ships were delayed and unavailable for training and operations,” the report, which was presented to a joint Navy and Marine Corps hearing before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittees on Seapower and Readiness, reads.
The report follows another in November, in which the GAO found that “attack submarines have incurred 10,363 days of idle time and maintenance delays as a result of delays in getting into and out of the shipyards” between 2008 and 2018.
According to Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran, the lack of public yard capacity is contributing to the delays, and the expansion of nuclear submarine work to private yards would be beneficial.
“We still have a ways to go. We're not out of the woods yet, but I think as capacity opens up in the private yards, and we do a better job in the public yards, getting our carriers out on time, we'll be there,” Moran said, ABC reported.
“The maintenance delays are trending upwards since we finished the study last month. That's heading in the wrong direction,” GAO's John Pendleton said…
