GAO cites need for better US Navy ship maintenance monitoring and performance

The US Navy (USN) should “establish and implement procedures to collect and analyse reliable maintenance data” and “include the performance of intermediate maintenance periods in strategic planning efforts”, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended in a report released on 9 February.

“The navy collected, but did not analyse, limited data on the performance of intermediate maintenance periods – work often occurring while a ship is pierside and capable of getting under way within 96 hours,” the GAO said in its report, ‘Navy Ship Maintenance: Actions Needed to Monitor and Address the Performance of Intermediate Maintenance Periods'.

The USN concurred with the GAO's recommendations.

The GAO found that the USN completed 191 of 414 (46%) submarine intermediate maintenance periods late from fiscal years 2015 to 2020, totalling 2,525 days of maintenance delay.

“The navy did not collect several categories of data for submarines, surface ships, and aircraft carriers, including the planned and actual maintenance period costs,” the GAO reported. “Without establishing and implementing procedures to collect and analyse these data, the navy cannot effectively track and improve the performance of intermediate maintenance periods,” it added.

Ships' crews and shore-based maintenance providers have taken steps to address challenges affecting the performance of intermediate maintenance periods for submarines, surface ships, and aircraft carriers, the GAO reported, “but have had limited success because the navy's efforts have been fragmented, have not generally included the sharing of best practices and lessons learned, and have not included the performance of intermediate maintenance periods in its strategic planning”.

The navy's aircraft carrier community independently created a working group to address some aspects of parts shortages, the GAO noted, “but has not shared this effort across the fleet”.