‘Something is seriously wrong’: America’s most powerful tool for countering China is in dire straits, experts say

• The US Navy is struggling to manage intense requirements placed on too few ships manned by discouraged sailors and a lack of foresight by uniformed leaders amid pressure from Congress to expand the fleet, experts said to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Failure to address these issues would cripple America’s most valuable tool for wielding power around the world, experts said.
  
• “The Navy is trying very hard because it will be the first service and will be fighting and taking heavy losses in the first few weeks” of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, said Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Engagement program at Defense Priorities. DCNF.

The US Navy is overstretched, and if it doesn’t find a way to retain the sailors, keep the ships in good repair and develop a clear plan, the US will lose the most powerful tool it has to deter China, they said. the experts to the Daily. Caller News Foundation.

The Navy’s readiness for a fight has collapsed in recent years due to a series of problems with personnel and capabilities that likely stem from the failure to maintain a fleet of the proper size and composition for the job of patrolling the world’s oceans and protecting the homeland, according to experts and surveillance reports. As Congress urges the service to maintain a larger fleet, the Navy is nearing the point where it will have to choose a path: fix its problems or scale back, experts said.

“The United States relies on the Navy to promote American influence, respond to crises, and deter, and if necessary, defeat, adversary aggression. If the Navy does not quickly address its shortcomings, one of its most important instruments of national power will become less and less relevant,” Timothy Walton, a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific warfare and security at the Hudson Institute, told DCNF.

The Navy has received a fresh round of criticism in recent weeks for promoting a drag queen as a “digital ambassador,” which came first reported by DCNF. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said the incident exhibited the obsession of uniformed leaders with awakening priorities in a opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal.

“The US Navy is on the decline,” Tuberville said. (RELATED: ‘Everyone Is Guessing’: Pentagon Tells Congress US Should Be Ready For Chinese Invasion Of Taiwan At Any Time)

In a sense, the Navy has it worse than the other services, receiving an “undue amount of attention” due to major accidents, ship delays and scandals, Brent Sadler, senior researcher on naval warfare for the Heritage Foundation, told DCNF. . .

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office looking at trends in military preparedness found that the Navy’s mission readiness and capability declined between 2017 and 2021.

The service has consistently failed to rectify longstanding challenges to keep ships in congressionally mandated condition and has amassed a maintenance backlog of $1.8 billion, according to the report. Abandoned docks where ships are repaired and maintained are part of the problem; another issue is that the surface fleet is sub-manned And the sailors don’t get enough sleep.

Most of the equipment in shipyards, where Navy vessels are docked for repairs and maintenance when not deployed, is past its useful life. according to another GAO report from May 2022. While the Navy has discussed upgrades to the drydock infrastructure, the estimated cost of doing so has been inflated by at least $4 billion, while detailed plans on modernization of shipyards are years behind schedule.

“Something is seriously wrong” with the way maintenance is being done, Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Engagement program at Defense Priorities and a former research professor at the US Naval War College, told DCNF.

Poor shipyard conditions in turn mean the Navy is struggling to maintain its fleet of surface ships and submarines, according to the GAO findings. And, the Navy is under scrutiny for a series of accidents, including a fire on board the USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020 which led to the loss of the ship and two deaths accidents in 2017 that killed 17 sailors.

Low morale is another problem plaguing ship crews, leading to a “staggering” number of desertions and cluster suicides, CBS News reported.

Seven sailors serving the USS George Washington have committed suicide since it was deployed, according to CBS News. In late 2022, at least four Sailors assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, a maintenance depot in Norfolk, Virginia, died within weeks of each other, NBC News reported.

Much of the problem has been blamed on poor living and working conditions, with sailors confined to cramped conditions on docked ships for years.

But whether docked or deployed, ship crews are being asked to do more than is realistically expected, Goldstein said.

Fleet growth could also address some of the personnel issues facing the Navy, Sadler argued, by reducing duty deployment schedules. “Grow the fleet and retention will increase as sailors have more manageable deployment schedules, on better-maintained ships that can deploy on time,” he said.

Commander, USN Military Sealift Command, Rear Admiral Michael Wettlaufer (R), Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Development, Vice Admiral Jeffrey Hughes (L), Co-Founder and Chairman of the Harvey Milk Stuart Milk Foundation (3R), Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro (5R) stands to attention during the National Anthem at the USNS Harvey Milk ceremony at the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, California on November 6, 2021. (Photo by ARIANA DREHSLER/ AFP via Getty Images)

But, the prospect of building more ships poses another layer of challenges.

Navy Admiral Daryl Caudle, commander of the US Fleet Forces Command, blamed US defense industry overwhelmed by orders to support US military aid to Ukraine, by delays in production and repair of ships, submarines and the weapons they are required to use deliver.

“It should have been made pretty clear” that the Navy’s attempt to build a new class of submarine while producing attack submarines at the same time “was going to be very, very difficult,” Goldstein said. “So it really doesn’t surprise me that we’re getting 1.2 subs a year instead of two” as planned.

Meanwhile, the service released a reduced 2024 budget proposal that continues the decommissioning process for certain classes of ships deemed too maintenance-intensive or unsuitable for the Navy’s goals, part of a “dive to invest” strategy, Defense news reported.

“Congress has consistently appropriated funds beyond the Navy’s requests to address deficiencies, especially in the areas of shipbuilding, aviation acquisition and munitions,” Walton said.

Congress could authorize additional funding for fleet expansion, as it has in previous years, but remains concerned about the Navy’s delay in meeting lawmakers’ demands for a larger fleet, Breaking Defense reported. Those concerns triggered unusual hearings Thursday in Congress on shipbuilding.

“Given the astronomical amount of American taxpayer funds going into this effort, that is unacceptable,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman, chairman of the Homeland Security, Border and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Oversight Committee, told Breaking Defense. The House of Representatives.

The Secretary of the Navy, Carlos del Toro, appeared to affirm an eventual need for more ships to worktop china quickly in expansion Navy, CNN reported. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy could put up to 400 ships in operation in the coming years, up from the 340 it currently deploys, while the US Navy hovers around 300 ships.

“They have 13 shipyards, in some cases their shipyard has more capacity – one shipyard has more capacity than all of our shipyards combined. That presents a real threat,” del Toro said, according to CNN.

But, the general trend of the Navy has been toward a smaller number of large, expensive ships, Walton told DCNF.

That trend has put the service at odds with the Marine Corps, which is pressing the Navy to fund additional medium-sized amphibious ships.

The Navy’s current shipbuilding plan lays out three different paths, “which means the service doesn’t have a clear vision of where it wants to go or how it will get there.” according Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher.

“The design of the US fleet must be based on US strategic and operational demands; however, the increasing size and sophistication of the People’s Liberation Army is driving the growing need for a more robust US Navy,” Walton said.

However, the Navy and Marine Corps together show off The longest budget proposal of all the armed forces. Adding more could drain an already bloated US defense budget and may not even tip the scales in favor of the United States in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Goldstein argued.

“The Navy is trying very hard because it will be the first service and it will fight and take heavy losses in the first few weeks,” Goldstein told DCNF. “The goals that have been set for the Navy are too grand and we should be more realistic.”

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