As the last of its 6200 sailors boarded the USS Harry S. Truman for its current deployment in the Middle East, Gunners Mate Roy Allen Gordon knew what was ahead of him as a weapons technician.
"All the work we do is maintenance," he said, as the carrier prepared to depart from Norfolk in September. "I'd say, like, probably 80% of our job is maintenance."
According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, that's becoming an increasing difficult job for the Navy.
The GAO surveyed officers in charge of maintenance on board ships throughout the fleet. It found on average the ships left port with only 65 percent of the parts needed to perform routine maintenance.
Ships also were undermanned, and the crews were not properly trained for their roles.
The Navy has had a backlog of maintenance jobs for more than a decade, which is now causing more issues at sea, according to Bryan Clark, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute.
"The Navy hasn't had the time to plan out the job, or they're rushing the shipyard to get through the maintenance period because the ship needs to get back to sea, or the ship was delayed getting into the shipyard because it was extended on a previous deployment," Clark said.
Carriers like USS Truman are on a set cycle of deploying roughly every three years. But smaller ships like destroyers often deploy more frequently. That means they enter shipyards for maintenance less frequently, Clark said.
"They can just deploy again and again and again within their overall deployment cycle," Clark said. "And if that means canceling a maintenance period or pushing it into the future, the Navy will do that, and you're starting to see the results."
Most officers surveyed said they found it difficult to perform basic maintenance at sea. In some cases sailors were moved to fill other roles on the ship or unavailable for duty.
The Navy's recruiting struggles also strain maintenance, said Dan Grazier, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. To save costs over the last decade, the Navy has decreased the number of sailors required on board ships, at a time when ships are getting older and require more maintenance.
"They need people first," Grazier said. "That should be everyone's highest priority. And when you try to take people out of the equation, then you just create this cascade of problems."
The Navy needs 84,000 sailors to operate all of its ships and subs. The report found the Navy was short by 16 percent in 2023. Though more than 334,000 people are on active duty, many are assigned to shore duty.
"Clearly the Navy needs a shore establishment to operate the fleet," Grazier said, "but I'm willing to bet that there are a number of sailors out there who can possibly be put back on sea duty to help solve these maintenance crises that the Navy has, because this is a problem."
In the last year, the USS Boxer, the USS Wasp and the USS Iwo Jima have all been sidelined for a time while at sea. The Boxer was delayed repeatedly for issues involving defective parts and improper maintenance.
"I'm confident we've got all the support, all the supply, all the materials necessary to sustain us for as long as need be," said Rear Admiral Sean Bailey, commander of the Truman Carrier Strike Group. "Clearly, we put a lot of time and effort into getting the ship and the strike group ready, and we’re ready for our deployment."
Even so, before the carrier left Norfolk in September, it was already a year behind in going to the shipyard for its 25-year midlife overhaul, which includes refueling its nuclear reactors. Now, that maintenance won’t happen until it returns from the Middle East.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
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