US Warships’ Time at Sea Dwindles on Breakdowns as China Challenge Rises

[beijingwalker]

US Warships’ Time at Sea Dwindles on Breakdowns as China Challenge Rises​

• GAO reports trouble as US competes with China’s bigger navy
• Ten-year trend shows more frequent unplanned parts breakdowns

By Anthony Capaccio
January 31, 2023 at 11:55 PM GMT+8

US Navy warships have seen fewer days at sea since 2011 because vessels are breaking down more frequently than expected and taking longer to repair, even as the Pentagon struggles to catch up with China’s larger fleet, according to newly disclosed data from congressional analysts.

A review of maintenance, repair and parts replacement for 151 surface warships matched with days underway at sea shows they “faced persistent sustainment challenges that have worsened through 2021,” according to a Government Accountability Office assessment released Tuesday.

The declining time at sea is a troubling sign particularly as the US seeks to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region and for a potential conflict this decade over Taiwan. China has the world’s largest navy, according to the Pentagon, while the GAO says the US is getting less use out of many of the ships it has.

The problems included increased delays in depot maintenance and “growing numbers of cannibalizations,” according to the assessment, adding up to “fewer hours that ships were steaming.” Parts are considered cannibalized when they are pulled off another ship because crews couldn’t get what was needed in the normal supply chain.

Expanding Fleet​

The report is a sobering primer for lawmakers and Navy officials who only recently have shifted focus from adding more vessels to the fleet to maintenance backlogs. It adds to doubt about the Navy achieving a goal of a 350-vessel fleet, as desired by many lawmakers, when it’s having major difficulties with its current force of 293. The Navy this month announced a goal of maintaining at least 75 vessels fully combat-ready at all times. Details have yet to be spelled out for that project, called North Star 75.

The Navy’s premier destroyer, the Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51, averaged seven more cannibalizations per ship in fiscal 2021 than it did in fiscal 2011 and 19 more serious “category 3 and 4” failure reports per ship, according to the GAO. The 68 ships built by General Dynamics Corp. also averaged 20 more days of maintenance delays in 2021 than in 2011, according to the report.

“We selected 10 ship classes that represent a large portion of the Navy’s total ship population,” the GAO said. “Specifically, as of November 2022, the selected ship classes represented about half of the Navy’s total ship battle force.”

Navy officials told the GAO that all nine surface ship classes reviewed “experienced delays caused by two factors: the growth in magnitude of previously planned work, and the identification of the need for new work that was not previously planned.”


The newly released report dovetails with views of the admiral responsible for providing combat-ready vessels. Shipyard maintenance and new construction delays are “the most significant problem the Navy faces,” Admiral Daryl Caudle said in an emailed statement.

Caudle this month criticized Navy contractors for late deliveries of the service’s primary air-defense weapon, the SM-6 missile that’s made by Raytheon Technologies Corp., as well as the MK-48 heavyweight torpedo made by Lockheed Martin Corp.

“I need SM-6 missiles delivered on time,” he said in the email, pledging to sit down with defense contractors to discuss the problem next month. “I need Mk-48 torpedoes delivered on time.”

Budget Increases​

According to Congressional Budget Office figures, Congress added $19 billion and 22 vessels more than the Navy’s annual requests from fiscal 2011 to 2021. The costs to operate and sustain the 151 Navy ships included in the GAO review totaled about $17 billion in fiscal year 2020. Still, the average of serious failure reports increased to 36 per ship in 2021 from 22.

The eight Wasp-class amphibious assault vessel built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. to carry Marines and equipment like F-35B jets experienced “the most significant increase in casualty reports” — from 11 per vessel in fiscal year 2011 to 61 in 2021, the GAO said.

The agency provided fresh evidence of the poor performance of Littoral Combat Ships built in versions by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal Ltd. Both vessel types averaged 26 more serious “category 3 and 4” parts failure reports in 2021 than in 2011.

The GAO report is a public version of one issued to the Navy and Congress in December that disclosed the number of reduced days underway on patrols. From 2011 to 2021 planned steaming hours “for these classes generally decreased; however, we removed specific details from the figure showing this general decrease because DoD deemed this information sensitive,” the GAO said. The Pentagon labeled the information “Controlled Unclassified Information” to prevent its disclosure.

US Warships’ Time at Sea Dwindles on Breakdowns as China Challenge Rises

US Navy warships have seen fewer days at sea since 2011 because vessels are breaking down more frequently than expected and taking longer to repair, even as the Pentagon struggles to catch up with China’s larger fleet, according to newly disclosed data from congressional analysts.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[beijingwalker]

US Warships Struggle To Stay At Sea As China’s Fleet Grows​

February 1, 2023

By Tony Capaccio (Bloomberg) US Navy warships have seen fewer days at sea since 2011 because vessels are breaking down more frequently than expected and taking longer to repair, even as the Pentagon struggles to catch up with China’s larger fleet, according to newly disclosed data from congressional analysts.

A review of maintenance, repair and parts replacement for 151 surface warships matched with days underway at sea shows they “faced persistent sustainment challenges that have worsened through 2021,” according to a Government Accountability Office assessment released Tuesday.

The declining time at sea is a troubling sign particularly as the US seeks to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region and for a potential conflict this decade over Taiwan. China has the world’s largest navy, according to the Pentagon, while the GAO says the US is getting less use out of many of the ships it has.

Also Read: US Navy Released Worst Rust Photo To Date

The problems included increased delays in depot maintenance and “growing numbers of cannibalizations,” according to the assessment, adding up to “fewer hours that ships were steaming.” Parts are considered cannibalized when they are pulled off another ship because crews couldn’t get what was needed in the normal supply chain.

Expanding Fleet​

The report is a sobering primer for lawmakers and Navy officials who only recently have shifted focus from adding more vessels to the fleet to maintenance backlogs. It adds to doubt about the Navy achieving a goal of a 350-vessel fleet, as desired by many lawmakers, when it’s having major difficulties with its current force of 293. The Navy this month announced a goal of maintaining at least 75 vessels fully combat-ready at all times. Details have yet to be spelled out for that project, called North Star 75.

The Navy’s premier destroyer, the Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51, averaged seven more cannibalizations per ship in fiscal 2021 than it did in fiscal 2011 and 19 more serious “category 3 and 4” failure reports per ship, according to the GAO. The 68 ships built by General Dynamics Corp. also averaged 20 more days of maintenance delays in 2021 than in 2011, according to the report.

“We selected 10 ship classes that represent a large portion of the Navy’s total ship population,” the GAO said. “Specifically, as of November 2022, the selected ship classes represented about half of the Navy’s total ship battle force.”

Navy officials told the GAO that all nine surface ship classes reviewed “experienced delays caused by two factors: the growth in magnitude of previously planned work, and the identification of the need for new work that was not previously planned.”

The newly released report dovetails with views of the admiral responsible for providing combat-ready vessels. Shipyard maintenance and new construction delays are “the most significant problem the Navy faces,” Admiral Daryl Caudle said in an emailed statement.

Caudle this month criticized Navy contractors for late deliveries of the service’s primary air-defense weapon, the SM-6 missile that’s made by Raytheon Technologies Corp., as well as the MK-48 heavyweight torpedo made by Lockheed Martin Corp.

“I need SM-6 missiles delivered on time,” he said in the email, pledging to sit down with defense contractors to discuss the problem next month. “I need Mk-48 torpedoes delivered on time.”

Budget Increases​

According to Congressional Budget Office figures, Congress added $19 billion and 22 vessels more than the Navy’s annual requests from fiscal 2011 to 2021. The costs to operate and sustain the 151 Navy ships included in the GAO review totaled about $17 billion in fiscal year 2020. Still, the average of serious failure reports increased to 36 per ship in 2021 from 22.

The eight Wasp-class amphibious assault vessel built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. to carry Marines and equipment like F-35B jets experienced “the most significant increase in casualty reports” — from 11 per vessel in fiscal year 2011 to 61 in 2021, the GAO said.

The agency provided fresh evidence of the poor performance of Littoral Combat Ships built in versions by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal Ltd. Both vessel types averaged 26 more serious “category 3 and 4” parts failure reports in 2021 than in 2011.

The GAO report is a public version of one issued to the Navy and Congress in December that disclosed the number of reduced days underway on patrols. From 2011 to 2021 planned steaming hours “for these classes generally decreased; however, we removed specific details from the figure showing this general decrease because DoD deemed this information sensitive,” the GAO said. The Pentagon labeled the information “Controlled Unclassified Information” to prevent its disclosure.

US Warships Struggle To Stay At Sea As China's Fleet Grows

By Tony Capaccio (Bloomberg) US Navy warships have seen fewer days at sea since 2011 because vessels are breaking down more frequently than expected and taking longer to repair, even as...

gcaptain.com

 

[beijingwalker]

US Navy laments China’s shipbuilding supremacy​

US Navy Secretary says its imperative to upgrade fleet to keep pace with China but the reality is America lacks the capacity to do so
by Gabriel Honrada
February 27, 2023

China now has more naval vessels than the US. Image: Xinhua

The US is seemingly at a loss to match China’s ascendant naval shipbuilding capacity as US Navy leaders engage in a blame game rather than addressing past failures and mismanagement.

CNN reported this month that US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said the US cannot match China in terms of fleet numbers, an admission that could have significant implications for the Pacific region’s power balance.

At the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Del Toro said that China now has a larger fleet and is deploying it globally, making it imperative for the US to upgrade its fleet in response.

According to the Pentagon’s November 2022 China Military Power report, China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) is the world’s largest navy with 340 ships as of 2022. The US Navy, in comparison, had just 280 ships.


Del Toro said that China has 13 naval shipyards, with one of these facilities having more capacity than all seven US naval shipyards combined. He also highlighted problems in finding skilled labor for US naval shipbuilding programs.

A December 2022 US Congressional Research Service report states that budget cuts and other issues have resulted in layoffs of shipyard workers whose specialized skills cannot easily and readily be replaced.

In his speech, Del Toro also said China does not face the same restrictions, regulations and economic pressures that hound US shipbuilders while accusing China of using “slave labor” in its naval shipbuilding program, without providing corroborating evidence.

However, defense policy expert Blake Herzinger said that Del Toro’s remarks were typical of the US Navy’s leadership response to China’s ascendant shipbuilding program, which he said tends to criticize China rather than acknowledge US failures, CNN reported.

In a December 2018 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report, the Washington-based think tank said the US has focused on expanding naval shipbuilding instead of integrating civilian and military shipbuilding operations.

This philosophy, the report notes, is due to the different requirements of civilian and military shipbuilding, with consolidation potentially affecting the productivity and efficiency of both.

However, in an October 2021 article for Foreign Policy, Alexander Wooley notes that US naval shipbuilding woes can be traced to the post-Cold War “peace dividend,” which resulted in the private shipbuilding industry successfully lobbying the Clinton administration to take over engineering and design work traditionally done by the US Navy.

In the late 1900s, Wooley notes, the US Navy subsequently sought cost savings by reducing in-house naval architecture and engineering staff by 75%, from 1,200 to roughly 300.

Wooley also notes that the lack of new shipbuilding facilities has left US warships staying longer at shipyards for repairs, giving little incentive for shipyards to invest in increasing production capacity and thus resulting in the loss of skilled workers, technical know-how and subcontractors.

In contrast, China has chosen to apply its civil-military fusion strategy to its naval shipbuilding program to boost productivity.

This strategy brings several other advantages including cost savings, shortened development time and production cycles, improved military equipment quality and overall more efficient production, as well as allowing military industries to leverage advances in civilian technology, notes Richard Blitzinger in a January 2021 report for the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.

The approach also builds on China’s centralized and top-down strategic culture, enabling it to quickly shift attention, capital and resources to strategic sectors such as shipbuilding.

According to the 2022 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Statistics Handbook, China built 44.2% of the world’s merchant fleet last year, followed by South Korea at 32.4% and Japan at 17.6%. In contrast, the data shows that the US built only 0.053% of the world’s total merchant fleet in 2022.

Monty Khanna notes in a 2019 article in the peer-reviewed journal Maritime Affairs: Journal of the National Maritime Foundation of India how China manages to build warships quickly and efficiently.

Khanna notes that China’s concurrent building of warships and civilian ships in the same shipyards has allowed its shipbuilding industry to operate at capacity regardless of economic downturns, apply mass-production techniques for civilian ships to naval shipbuilding, apply advanced civilian technologies into warships, maintain surge production capability for naval shipbuilding and circumvent sanctions targeting its military modernization programs.

Still, China’s shipbuilding program has its share of challenges. For example, in a 2015 article, Andrew Erickson notes that China still relies on foreign sources for surface ship and submarine propulsion.

A June 2021 article from Deutsche Welle reports that engines from German manufacturer Motoren und Turbinen-Union (MTU) are used in China’s Luyang III destroyers and Song-class submarines, with Beijing able to evade EU sanctions due to the engines’ dual-use applications.

Moreover, Erickson also says that China still has difficulty producing sophisticated sensors. Along those lines, in September 2021, a US court sentenced a Chinese national for smuggling US hydrophones that could be used for anti-submarine warfare to the Chinese military.

Erickson also notes that adherence to quality control standards may be a weakness in China’s naval shipbuilding program due to a cultural emphasis on personal relations and pragmatism, which he argues may result in problems in compliance to strict standards compared to Western ship-builders.

He also points out that China’s centralized and top-down strategic culture can result in bureaucratic inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.

Erickson also points out that China’s shipbuilding workforce remains relatively undereducated, resulting in China being capable of building large numbers of large and small non-complex ships.

It’s a deficiency he says China is addressing through partnerships between shipyards and the creation of technical schools to boost the capacity of its shipbuilding workforce.

US Navy laments China's shipbuilding supremacy - Asia Times

The US is seemingly at a loss to match China’s ascendant naval shipbuilding capacity as US Navy leaders engage in a blame game rather than addressing past

asiatimes.com