US Navy Consistently Fails To Meet Repair Schedules For Ships Based Overseas - Watchdog

Umer Jamshaid Published February 27, 2020 | 02:50 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2020) The Navy persistently underestimates the time and work required to maintain and repair 38 warships based overseas resulting in thousands of days that vessels are unavailable for operations, the General Accountability Office said in an audit report.

"Maintenance on surface ships based overseas took longer than planned for 50 of the 71 maintenance periods - or about 70 percent - started during fiscal years 2014 through 2018. More than half of these maintenance delays lasted a month or longer," the report said on Wednesday.

In addition, the Navy has not conducted a comprehensive analysis of maintenance delays to systematically identify and address their root causes.

Without such an analysis, the Navy cannot effectively target corrective actions, and risks continuing to underestimate maintenance needs and the time and resources required to address them, the report said.

The Navy maintains the 38 surface ships based in Japan, Spain, and Bahrain through a mix of Navy-operated facilities and private contractors, according to the report.

The report made five recommendations, including that the Navy comprehensively analyze and address maintenance delays, and assess the risks and analyze requirements of future overseas maintenance efforts.