New SecNAV is Inheriting a Mess
Yes, well, I could have told him that. I think anyone could have seen this coming. Secretary Bilden is facing at least a decade’s worth of plain neglect and rerouting funding to things other than what the money was originally meant to address, such as training and maintenance. The Fleet has dropped from 500 ships at the end of the Cold war to 247 under the administration prior to Trump.
SecNav Bilden faces a complex problem: maintenance, or training, or increased fleet size. And guess who left the mess behind for him to fix?
The general consensus is that the Fleet puts maintenance and training ahead of increasing the size of the Fleet as a whole. While we do need more ships and planes, we also need people who can take care of them, something which seems to have escaped the notice of previous occupants of those positions.
I guess it was more important to make sure that ships had inappropriate names than it was to make sure they were properly maintained and the crews know how to navigate and use the ships’ equipment correctly.
Category: Navy
Meanwhile, we sink billions of dollars into contract for a jet that hasn’t worked correctly since the beginning.
And sunk a shitload of money to make the Fleet “green” with expensive “biofuel”…
Said “Green Fuel” costing a paltry $26 per gallon likely produced by an outfit that donated to the previous administration.
You mean they were paying graft to get gov’t purchase contracts for something highly overpriced that the military didn’t need. I’ve heard of that before, but back then it was supposed to be a crime, but now it is just saving Gaia (the planet Earth for you folks in Rio Linda, as Rush used to say).
But we did get to name a ship after a gay pedophile.
That has got to count for something.
Yeah.
The Navy needs to continue to focus on the important things.
Mabus was a tool.
You’re being too kind to Mabus.
And you’re giving Tools a bad name.
Again, rename every SINKEX target USS Ray Mabus for the occasion.
THAT is a really good idea.
Ah yes, the resplendent USS Harvey Milk. Or is there another ship named for a butt pirate.
Oops, forgot the ? mark.
You never know.
From the article, “fix our fleet, focus on war fighting, then grow the Navy”. That makes a lot of sense to me. Make what we have now the best it can be and possibly, in the background begin the growth process. But we have to be able to fight anywhere we are called to with what we have now and that means we have to quickly regain an up to standards fleet with well trained Sailors to man it..
Make the existing fleet as close to 100% as we can before acquiring more broke-dick new designs named after neighborhood organizers and gay icons? Man, the lefties are going to hate that idea…
A 350 ship Navy equals about 115 ships deployable at any time! One third in overhaul, one third in training and one third deployed. That is not enough.
‘While we do need more ships and planes, we also need people who can take care of them, something which seems to have escaped the notice of previous occupants of those positions.’ That is absolutely correct, and here’s an example of just how bad things have become regarding Navy manpower out in the Fleet: ‘Sea duty shortages: Sailors asked to extend enlistments’ http://www.13newsnow.com/news/military/sea-duty-shortages-sailors-asked-to-extend-enlistments/400282944 ‘(Navy Times) — Navy officials are asking roughly 6,000 first-term sailors to extend their enlistments at sea in an effort to stave off a looming manpower shortage that will begin to hit the fleet this year. Officials aren’t offering extra money or other traditional perks. Instead, for those sailors who raise their hands, Navy officials say they’ll allow those sailors to stay beyond traditional “up or out” time limits. The sea-duty extensions for up to two more years of service will give those sailors more opportunity to advance to the next level and increase their chances to re-up for shore duty when their sea tour is over. The unusual offer — with a working deadline of Feb. 28 — comes as the Navy is facing a temporary manning crisis that threatens to reverse several years of progress toward the goal of ensuring that deploying units leave their homeports with as many billets filled as possible. “Currently we have several thousand gaps at sea,” said Rear Adm. John F. Meir, the assistant commander of Navy Personnel Command for Career Progression. “This extension helps us by keeping those billets filled at sea and we don’t have to roll sailors into the billets being vacated by those leaving active duty,” Meir said. The offer primarily benefits E-3 sailors and below, especially in the most sea-intensive ratings in year groups 2012 and 2013. A year group is the fiscal year in which the sailor entered active duty. The looming shortage arose because the Navy, admittedly, overshot the latest drawdown, which ran from 2003 to 2011. Over those years, the size of the Navy dropped from 380,000 sailors down to just over 317,000 at the end of 2012 — nearly 5,000 below… Read more »
Damn. I put that in one of my underway stories a few months ago: the characters have to extend to get their promotions, no re-up bonuses, no nothin’. I must be more psychic than I realized.
Or maybe I just saw this coming.
I was in the Navy (aviation) from 1974-1980, during the wonderful Carter years. Low flight hours, long deployments with long in-port stays between at-sea operations, not enough maintenance bucks, not enough sailors…. But the current state of the Navy makes the Carter years look pretty good. And at least President Carter woke up somewhat to reality near the end of his term.
How low we have fallen, especially considering a large chunk of the people in the country think this state of the military is OK.
Yes, the days of good ol’ Jimmah. Back when progtardism didn’t always trump the needs of the Navy.
“Secretary Bilden is facing at least a decade’s worth”
A lot longer than that I think….
After my retirement I ended up in a shipyard doing new construction as well repairs and Navy ships.
Talk about a social experiment!!… Between the shitheads there lkooking fir a free ride and the baby momma drama going on in the crews Its a mircle any of them got past Hiawaii