A Burke class destroyer, the USS McCain (DDG-56), failed an INSURV inspection conducted in June, according to a Navy Times report just released. I have no other information about this. I had been hoping that Navy maintenance and training issues were being addressed and showing improvement but this makes me wonder anew. Admittedly, a single INSURV failure proves nothing. Still, it's disturbing that the Navy's backbone ship type would fail.
This is the first failure I've heard about in some time which had led me to hope things were improving. Of course, given that the Navy went to the length of classifying these inspections due to the poor PR and resultant public criticism and pressure who knows how many inspections have been conducted over the last year and whether there were other failures?
Wonder how much damage the "optimal manning" plans did before the were withdrawn.
ReplyDeleteFrom conversations with active duty sailors, I get the sense that a great deal of damage has been done. For instance, techs have been reduced which decreases maintenance and repair on complex equipment. Add in chronic parts shortages and you get semi-permanently degraded equipment.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, Aegis, the backbone of the fleet, has suffered fleet-wide degradation to the point that the Navy has implemented a formal restoration program to try to bring Aegis capability back to at least minimal standards.
More generally, the fleet is suffering simple physical maintenance issues such as corrosion.
I speak of this in the present tense rather than the past tense, as you did, because I have yet to see concrete evidence that minimal manning has been reversed. There is some evidence that manning has been increased slightly but not to pre-minimal levels. As best I can determine, the Navy is still suffering from "if-not-minimal-then-still-not-enough" manning.
Exactly. Hell god save us from the accountants and their great idea's.
DeleteClassifying INSURV reports is a misuse of the classification system. Does anyone think that if the Chinese or Russians or even the Iranians wanted this information that the low security classification would stop them? All it did was stop the American public from finding out the condition of their ships to stop embarrassing the Navy brass.
ReplyDeleteThe classification even hurts readiness since it slows down the dissemination of problems inside the Navy so personnel both military and civilian won’t know what problems to look for.