New GAO report highlights sorry condition of Navy amphibious warfare ships

A new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that sixteen out of the 32 ships in the Navy’s amphibious warfare ship fleet are considered to be in “poor material condition” by the service’s own standards.

Amphibious warfare ships are critical for Marine Corps missions, but the Navy has struggled to ensure they are available for operations and training, says GAO. In some cases, ships in the amphibious fleet have not been available for years at a time. The Navy and Marine Corps are working to agree on a ship availability goal but have yet to complete a metrics-based analysis to support such a goal. Until the Navy completes this analysis, says the watchdog agency, it risks jeopardizing its ability to align amphibious ship schedules with the Marine Corps units that deploy on them.

As of March 2024, half of the amphibious fleet is in poor condition and these ships are not on track to meet their expected service lives.

GAO identified factors that contributed to the fleet’s poor condition and reduced its availability for Marine Corps’ operations and training. For example, the Navy faces challenges with spare parts, reliability of ship systems, and canceled maintenance. GAO found that the Navy canceled maintenance for aging amphibious ships it planned to divest before completing the required waiver process. Navy officials said they no longer plan to cancel maintenance prior to completing the process, but the Navy has yet to update its maintenance policy to reflect that decision. Updating the policy would help ensure ships the Navy plans to divest do not miss maintenance if Congress restricts funds for divestment.

The Navy is likely to face difficulties meeting a statutory requirement to have at least 31 amphibious warfare ships in the future given the age of many ships and other factors. The Navy is considering extending the service life for some ships to meet the 31-ship requirement. However, these efforts will require up to $1 billion per ship, according to the Navy, with six ships needing service life extensions in the next three decades amid rising ship construction costs and maintenance backlogs.

GAO reviewed Navy and Marine Corps documentation and interviewed officials responsible for overseeing fleet availability, maintenance, and new ship acquisition plans. GAO also visited six ships and spoke with officers and crew about maintenance issues.

RECOMMENDATIONS

GAO is making a total of four recommendations to the Department of the Navy.

The Secretary of the Navy, in coordination with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, should refine definitions related to amphibious warfare ship availability to include specific and measurable terms.

The Secretary of the Navy, in coordination with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, should establish a time frame for completing and implementing their ongoing joint plan to address ship availability concerns and ensure that the analysis results in a specific number of amphibious warfare ships that the Navy and Marine Corps require to be available at any given time.

The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that the Chief of Naval Operations updates the Navy’s amphibious ship depot maintenance policy to clarify that, absent operational needs, the Navy should not cancel depot maintenance for amphibious ships proposed for divestment that have yet to reach the end of their expected service life, prior to providing the requisite certification to the congressional defense committees and completing the divestment waiver process.

The Secretary of the Navy should ensure that the Chief of Naval Operations establishes performance goals with tangible, measurable objectives and associated time frames that can be used to measure progress, for implementing the recommendations identified in the May 2023 Amphibious Readiness Review and, when completed, for implementing recommendations resulting from the Navy’s April 2024 review.

• Download the full report HERE

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