For most of the last two decades, what has been the above-the-fold focus of much of our senior leadership’s personal capital and bully pulpit when it comes to our fleet? Well, the sexier the topic, the more we heard of it; transformation, revolution, numbers, etc … you all know the drill.
Where has that got us? A few exquisite sub-optimal programs and a plan to build Arleigh Burke destroyers until the crack of doom.
As we wait to see what better-than-LCS platform we get for FFG(X) and explain how exactly we might wind up with a DDG-51 Flight-IV as the Large Surface Combatant – how about we step back a bit and, as Vince Lombardi might emphasize, focus on the fundamentals and the unsexy platforms – auxiliaries of all stripes, LCC, ice breakers, etc – that enable the battle fleet – so long neglected.
Also, we need to forgo a few exciting projects to get something even more fundamental mastered to at least an acceptable level first; maintenance.
As covered by David Larter so well;
The U.S. Navy is short hundreds of millions of dollars for ship depot maintenance this year and is already looking at just shy of $1 billion in unfunded maintenance in 2020, shortfalls that threaten to upend progress toward improved readiness and clearing its maintenance backlog.
During a midyear review of 2019 budget spending, the Navy found it had more than $3 billion in emergency costs that needed to be covered, including nearly $1 billion for ship depot maintenance. And while it’s unclear to what degree the 2019 and 2020 shortfalls overlap, there is at the very least nearly $1 billion in unfunded ship repair, meaning the fleet will need to find money or defer to later dates, according to three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
If the CNO really wants to make a mark for himself and set a new tone after a few decades of … issues … moving away from the glitter and focusing on what is under the bondo, duct tape, and bailing wire we’ve accepted as normal procedure – that would be a welcome new tone.
Bring it to the front. Talk about the neglect and what we need to fix it. Act on it. Get navalist activists on the Hill the information they need to get the funding. Be willing to trade a LCS or two worth of funding, get it painted a different color, and move it to get the fleet we have in the shape is deserves to be in.
