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Navy’s long-range maintenance report calls for more dry docks and greater capacity for larger fleet

Posted at 2:39 PM, Apr 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-08 17:19:18-04

NORFOLK, Va.- The Navy is out with a long-range maintenance plan to address challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.

The Report to Congress on the Long-Range Plan for Maintenance and Modernization of Naval Vessels for Fiscal Year 2020 was released in March and first reported by USNI News.

The report says "maintenance and modernization requirements must be fully funded and efficiently executed to reduce deferred maintenance that adds risk to future fleet readiness."

The Navy has struggled with maintenance backlogs in recent years, which can compound when a delay on performing maintenance on one ships leads to a delay in getting the next ship into the yard.

The report highlights the need for additional dry-docks at the shipyards.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth is one of four public shipyards in the Navy. It has 4 dry docks and handles all the East Coast aircraft carrier maintenance.

According to the report "dry dock investments are needed to support USS Gerald R Ford Class [aircraft carriers] and USS Virginia Class [submarines]." It calls for additional dry docks to be added.

Looking ahead over the next 30 years as the fleet grows to 355 ships, the Navy must implement changes "to both public and private industrial capability and capacity," the report says, adding "consistent funding matched to steady demand for work will enable the repair base, public and private, to grow to meet the needs of the 355-ship Navy."

You can read the long-range plan here.