Chinese Fleet Expansion Pushing U.S. Navy to Catch Up on Maintenance
By: Sam LaGrone
September 20, 2022 9:22 PM • Updated: September 20, 2022 9:57 PM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The rapid expansion in size of the People’s Liberation Army Navy is at the forefront of the maintainers working to reduce the U.S. fleet’s maintenance backlog, senior enlisted leaders said on Tuesday.
“When we talk about maintenance with our leaders, peer competitors are the first thing that comes out of their mouth,” Naval Sea Systems Command Command Master Chief Justin Gray said at the American Society of Naval Engineers’ annual Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium.
“We know that China has three times our industrial capacity, which means that we can’t afford to waste any of the time.”
While the Chinese fleet this year grew beyond 355 ships, the U.S. still has a backlog of about 4,200 days of maintenance delays in the surface ship program – the equivalent of reducing the fleet by about 10 ships for a year.
https://news.usni.org/2022/09/20/chinese-fleet-expansion-pushing-u-s-navy-to-catch-up-on-maintenance-as-backlogs-persist
