Sequestration impacts are dogging the US Navy… I’ve talked about how far underfunded ship maintenance was before in these pages…
The cruiser Chosin and destroyer Stout were both deemed unfit for combat operations by the service’s Board of Inspection and Survey, which at the time checked ships’ material conditions every five years.
Sequestration coupled with the ‘end of the Cold War’, and perception that the Navy had no more enemies, along with personnel cutbacks led to the end of ‘Readiness’ Squadrons, e.g. technical experts in maintenance and training that provided direct support to operational squadrons, plus the realignment of carrier and expeditionary battle groups led to operational squadrons being split up among two or three different battle groups and/or sent on single ship ops to OCONUS ports for deployments away from homeport.
It was worse for those ships who were homeported overseas, as they were already under the gun for maintenance and training due to the OPTEMPO they were required to maintain to support exercises with foreign navies/nations.
I’m glad I’m out and gone…
1938 again.
Combat, schmongbat. As long as Navy personnel know what pronouns to use, it’s all good.
Salamander gives us an earful on this nearly constantly. My understanding is the deficiencies are not sequestration as much as it is the policies of compartmentalization, i.e., contract crews for maintenance.
Maintenance will get “gundecked” if that’s how they push it . People can and do get hurt . Contract crews for maintenance ? Must be airedale talk . We put in JSN’s for yard work beyond ships capabilities during inport availabilities . Not uncommon to borrow tools from other divisions to accomplish MRC cards or to show inspectors for spot checks . We had a lot of “riders” throughout Desert Storm from about every Defense Company I’ve ever heard of . Best gig I ever had was aboard a precomm cruiser out of Bath , the whole damn ship was like a new car under warranty , since the Nav hadn’t taken possession technically yet , met Wayne Meyers , “the father of Aegis ” many times on that ship , cool old dude .
Good boat , the Lake Erie CG70 , gave me plankowner status .
Real men wear black shoes . LOL !! Hand Salute !
Off topic rant removed.
We did have stevedores in Subic that painted the sides , when I was on the Nimitz , my buddy and I were required to keep fetching paint from onboard and bring down to the pier as needed , till me and my buddy discovered a beer stand on the pier , then the paint fetching was delegated to a couple of E3s , best duty day ever , got attacked by monkeys at the pier dumpster too , swarm you and rip the bags right out of your hand . Monkeys…crazy , met a monkey in Thailand that would drink your beer if you weren’t watching , also would take your cigarettes and lighter and light one up , good times……
Yep, Cdr Salamander’s post today hits on this lack of maintenance and capability hard.
Decline is a choice, and the politicians and Navy top brass damn well chose it.
Amazing how just a few years of neglect of readiness and maintenance in the surface navy coupled with a focus on DEI over war-fighting seems to be hollowing out the fleet and leaving us highly vulnerable.
Ed- Sadly…
Pea- Yeah…dammit!
r/Aaron- Yes, and he is dead on the money, as usual!
Bos’n- Great story, and yes, tool shortages were just ‘one’ little part of the whole issue. Subic was something else!!! 🙂
Don’t forget the lack of basic seamanship and navigation…I am curious how the sub’s are doing in regards to them, since they had tracks and training plans whihc included actually doing stuff, but that was decades ago, now…
Meeting modern sailors here at the trauma/treatment center, it took me a minute to suss out why they’re so fascinated by my stories of yesterday. Finally realized they’re nearly homesick (for lack of a better term) for the days of “Can do!” and fixing things on the fly.
I was the asst Maintenance Officer of one of the P-3 Squadrons at Barbers Point. We had better than average maintenance readiness numbers, but that was only because the maintenance Chiefs had a container full of hard to get parts that had somehow disappeared from the regular supply system. The Chiefs wouldn’t tell me where it was and I was smart enough not to push it. It’s nice to be on a 1,000 acre Naval Air Station with lots of places to hide things. Our Black Shoe brothers don’t have that luxury, but I am sure they try just as hard to get and keep the parts they need to keep the equipment in all up round condition.
The only saving grace here?
I get the impression the Russkies are in worse shape.
But China?
That may be a different story altogether.
Vitaeus- One of the reasons they’re now teaching cel nav and morse code again…
Rev- Understood!
Hawaiian- LOL, sounds like VP-4 back in the day! 🙂
GB- Good point… Quantity IS a quality all its own. sigh…