Navy works to keep fleet ready during increasing global demand

The Navy is actively addressing the dual demands of maintaining and modernizing its fleet while keeping up with operational demands around the world, according to one of its leaders.

Navy Rear Adm. Andrew Biehn, director of Surface Maintenance, Modernization, and Sustainment for Naval Sea Systems Command, spoke at the Defense Logistics Agency Headquarters as part of its Campaign of Learning series Sept. 29.

Biehn highlighted the demand placed on the surface fleet due to its current size and the increasing operational tempo.

“The demand signal on the fleet is really high, so we’re trying to generate more available forces to go to sea,” he said.

This shortage necessitates a higher percentage of the fleet being “combat-surge ready” at any given time. The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle directed the Navy to achieve 80% combat-surge readiness, leaving only 20% of the fleet available for maintenance or early-stage training, Biehn said.

A ship is considered combat-surge ready if it is not in maintenance, has completed a significant portion of its training cycle, and is fully manned with working equipment, Biehn said. 

This goal is difficult to achieve, especially with carrier strike groups deployed in the Middle East and the Pacific, and an expeditionary strike group operating off the coasts of Central America in support of counter-narcotics operations, he said.

To address the fleet size challenge, the Navy is focused on modernizing existing ships to introduce new combat capabilities, he said. One example is the planned retrofit of the SPY-6 radar on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which requires replacing five air conditioning plants and cutting holes in the ship's hull.

The Navy is also working to extend the service life of its ships to avoid early decommissioning, he added. Efforts to combat corrosion and improve deep lifecycle maintenance have already allowed the extension of 17 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers by up to five years each.

“If we’re not building new ships fast enough, then the only way I can get new combat capability onto those ships is by modernizing those ships,” he explained. “We don’t just modernize a ship by sending it off to a depot…and it comes back to the squadron. It goes to a shipyard with the crew on it, and we do repairs and modernization at the same time.”

Some key obstacles to achieving 80% combat surge readiness are delays in maintenance and modernization availabilities. Unplanned work, stemming from underestimating the scope of modernization or the material condition of ships, accounts for about 40% of these delays, he said.

Material availability is also an issue, he said, with ships often entering maintenance without all necessary parts on hand.

“The guidance I’m giving to my folks is, if you don’t have everything you need – money, drawings, plans, the people and the material – we’re not starting,” Biehn said. “Because if I start something and I can’t finish it, all I’m doing is creating days of maintenance delay. And a day of maintenance delay is a day that I’ve taken a ship away from the operational commander.”

To improve material availability, the Navy is working to improve forecasting and communication with the logistics community. Maintenance will not begin without all necessary materials, plans and personnel in place, Biehn said.

The Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program is also playing a crucial role in forecasting material needs for maintenance availabilities, he said.

Biehn highlighted the importance of understanding maintenance data to identify primary cost, downtime and logistic delay time drivers for ship systems. This information will be used to improve training and documentation, and to potentially redesign parts that fail prematurely, he said.

A recording of the event is available to DLA employees on the Campaign of Learning page (a DLA Common Access Card is required).