Surface navy looks for ways to more quickly field ships, weapons
By Megan Eckstein
Aug 18, 07:24 PM
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Navy moves to field 10 new or modernized ship classes in the next decade, the head of the surface navy is considering how to get these ships and their more lethal capabilities deployed faster.
Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener in January released “Surface Warfare: The Competitive Edge,” which outlines five overarching priorities, including improving how the surface navy introduces new ship types. Since then, the surface community has detailed a number of ways it could more quickly get new capabilities to the fleet.
One of those ideas, according to Kitchener, is focused on how the Navy transitions newly constructed ships from the acquisition process to the fleet. Today, a new ship completes shipyard construction, sails to its homeport city and almost immediately goes into what’s called a post-shakedown availability — a maintenance period to fix anything that broke during rigorous at-sea trials and to complete work left unfinished by the construction yard, including installing the most up-to-date computer systems.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2022/08/18/surface-navy-looks-for-ways-to-more-quickly-field-ships-weapons/
