(yeah its broke down old Bulgarian diesel, but I’m trying to make a point here, bear with me…)
According to Hampton Roads.com the Navy is falling seriously behind on ship maintenance and it is affecting deployments. Although the article focuses mainly on the saga of the Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has missed its maintenance window and will now take longer before she is ready to deploy, it also contains this little nugget:
“The problem was complicated last year by the across-the-board defense spending cuts demanded by sequestration. For six months after the cuts came down in early 2013, the Navy’s public shipyards – including Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth – were forced to impose a hiring freeze and restrict overtime for civilian employees. That led to a manpower deficit at a time when the shipyards were seeing increased workloads, said Chris Johnson, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command.
The Navy’s public shipyards primarily work on nuclear vessels. Because of the manpower shortage, the Eisenhower will remain at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for several months longer than planned. In addition, work on eight submarines is backlogged, with delays ranging from two to nine months.
Adm. William Hilarides, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, discussed the submarine backlog during a recent defense symposium in Northern Virginia. Although the Navy is trying to hire more workers, Hilarides told the audience, there aren’t enough qualified workers to meet the demands.
Hilarides suggested that this is the new normal for submarines: “We will not catch those schedules back up,” he said.
