Surface Navy brass holding ‘sustainment summits’ to fix ship maintenance issues
Rear Adm. Fred Pyle said the service is "absolutely not" where it needs to be on ship cannibalization rates.
By JUSTIN KATZ
on February 03, 2023 at 2:22 PM
Freedom-class littoral combat ships, such as the Sioux City (LCS-11), were called out by a Government Accountability Office report as having particularly high cannibalization rates over the past decade. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas A. Russell)
WASHINGTON — The Navy’s surface fleet leadership is holding regular “sustainment summits” in part to address ongoing issues with how often the Navy is forced to cannibalize its own ships for parts, according to a senior officer overseeing the issue.
“Are we where we need to be? Absolutely not,” Rear Adm. Fred Pyle said in response to questions about a recent Government Accountability Office report highlighting an uptick in Navy ship maintenance problems. “That’s why I’m addressing it here, why we’re shining a bright light on [it] and why we want to move the needle on what’s better.”
Ship cannibalization, according to a new GAO report, has been happening more frequently across the service’s surface fleet for the past decade. For a Navy ship, cannibalization refers to taking parts off of one vessel to make another operational.
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/surface-navy-brass-holding-sustainment-summits-to-fix-ship-maintenance-issues/
