“We’ve got to be better” says US Navy maintenance chief
USS Boise was deactivated in April this year after a critical overhaul was delayed by ten years (Source: US Navy)
US Navy maintenance chief Rear Admiral Todd Weeks has called for a more agile approach to ship and submarine repairs, saying the service must reduce barriers that delay vessels returning to the fleet.
Weeks, who took charge of Program Acquisition Executive Industrial Operations (PAE IO) earlier this year, said the organisation needed to balance technical and operational risk more effectively. PAE IO oversees major Navy maintenance activities, including about 38,000 civilian workers at four public shipyards and contracts with private yards for surface ship repairs.
Maintenance delays have increased over the past decade, with destroyer and amphibious warship availabilities taking 20–100% longer depending on the vessel, according to a Congressional Budget Office report. A Government Accountability Office report found that only 11% of submarine maintenance at public shipyards was completed on time, while 15 attack submarines are projected to enter idle status between 2026 and 2030 because of limited maintenance capacity.
Weeks said the Navy had traditionally focused on eliminating technical risk at the expense of operational availability. “We’re really good at driving technical risk to zero and shifting all this operational risk back to the fleet,” he said. He cited a recent submarine availability in which PAE IO reduced the planned maintenance period from 29 to 25 months after assessing the risks of curtailing some repairs.
“We have to embrace that. We have to recognise that that’s the world we live in today,” Weeks said.
The Navy’s surface ship maintenance programme has also faced delays caused by contracts, materials and government-furnished equipment reaching private shipyards late. Weeks said PAE IO would aim to move resources towards the fleet’s highest priorities more quickly.
