This disturbs me for a couple reasons:
When the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman missed a planned deployment last month after suffering major electrical problems, the only East Coast-based carrier currently capable of deploying was forced to head back to the dock.
As the Navy scrambles to get the Truman out to sea, it is pulling material and work crews from two other carriers undergoing their own long-planned refit and repair availabilities, though Navy officials say they don’t expect the Truman’s problems to affect those other repair efforts. As it sits pier-side in Norfolk, the Truman has plenty of company, joining an already crowded Norfolk waterfront where six of the Navy’s 11 carriers are currently tied up. At the time we’re going to print that means not one of the six carriers based in Norfolk are ready to be deployed.
Is this a failure of maintenance? I thought the Trump era ended the readiness crisis. Unless this is some kind of cover for getting a surge of a lot of our east coast carriers, this is unacceptable:
According to information from the Navy, here’s the state of play for the Norfolk carrier fleet:
- USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) – has completed the Basic Phase of the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP) and is progressing normally through training to be deployable.
- USS George Washington (CVN 73) – in Maintenance Phase undergoing a Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipbuilding.
- USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) – at the end of OFRP, supporting operations off the East Coast; slated for RCOH.
- USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) – in Sustainment Phase; repair efforts for an electrical issue are underway to restore the ship to its full capability in order to deploy the ship and its air wing as soon as possible.
- USS George HW Bush (CVN 77) – Maintenance Phase.
- USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) – New construction, undergoing testing.
Certainly Ford and Washington couldn't surge. Unless we got a surge of urgency. Or can we do that any more?
And the second reason, regardless of why the six carriers are in one place is simply, doesn't anybody remember Pearl Harbor?
Granted, we don't face a major Atlantic naval threat. But this is a bad habit to get into and if we persist one day an enemy will plan to take advantage of this. Perhaps with missiles placed on a merchant ship that we never see coming.
When we contemplate fighting foes who can challenge us for control of the seas, not only do we need more ships we need more ports to disperse our ships and minimize the losses and disruptions to operations that an attack on a single port will inflict.
