New strategy aims to get 80% of Navy ships deployable

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti set a goal for the Navy last fall that she conceded might be a little aspirational: to have 80 percent of the Navy’s fleet ready to deploy at any given time by 2027.

Monday, Naval Sea Systems Command released its strategy to support that effort: a five-part plan that includes getting new ships in the water on time while also creating more maintenance opportunities for existing ships. The second part will mean sticking to the schedule for maintenance periods, a continuous challenge for the service.

“Bonus points for early,” Vice Adm. Jim Downey, head of Naval Sea Systems Command, said Thursday during a panel at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium outside Washington, D.C. “That is possible.”

Getting there will take better planning, he added, including shorter maintenance periods with tight schedules to make sure needed repairs and upgrades are done—and no time for lollygagging. 

That might look like 100 or 150 days in dry dock rather than a year, as data shows scheduled year-long availabilities are four times as likely to run over on time than shorter ones, Downey said.

There’s also a new policy that caps any added time to address surprises uncovered during the maintenance period to 12 percent of the original timeframe, Rear Adm. Bill Greene, who commands Navy Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk, Va., told the audience. 

Which is to say, if you have 100 days scheduled, anything you add during the process can’t take more than 12 extra days. If it does, it needs approval from the first flag officer in that ship’s chain of command.

Some of this will also necessitate better coordination with private partners.

“And that really comes down to planning what the work scope is, planning the material availability, and making sure the material is there ahead of time and ready to be used, and then making sure that the labor that we need is also ready,” George Whittier, the CEO of ship engine supplier Fairbanks Morse, said during the panel. 

And then there’s the option to do computer repairs and upgrades independently, rather than in a shipyard. 

Rather than having to rip out and replace a destroyer’s computer system to upgrade its Aegis Weapon System, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems is making the updates virtual.

“This enables the rapid delivery of new capabilities, software updates early, making our ships more lethal just by delivering upgrades to a computer program even while they're at sea,” said Capt. Andy Biehn, a military deputy at PEO IWS.

Several destroyers have received this update so far, he added, with 20 more scheduled to complete it this year.