Eighteen months into its two-year, data-based maintenance plan, the Navy hasn’t yet reached its target to have 75 of its warships as mission capable and prepared to deploy at any time, Naval Surface Forces leaders said, US Naval Institute News reports.
“It’s a data-based and informed analyses that we’re doing to make sure that we’re going to have 75 ships ready to fight. We don’t make this easy on ourselves, by design,” said Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, the Naval Surface Forces commander. “We want to stretch the system across the board so that we can make systemic, long-term improvements. And this is aligned with CNO’s goal to have more players on the field.”
McLane did not say how many ships currently meet the target. “We have made steady progress, but we still have a lot of way to go,” he said. The top surface warfare officer provided the update during a call with reporters last week ahead of Surface Naval Association’s Warriors and Warfighting 2024 waterfront symposium, which will be held this week at Naval Base San Diego.
McLane’s predecessor, retired Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, in April 2022 had announced a goal to reach “North Star 75” by Fiscal Year 2024, which ends Sept. 30.
The initiative takes a largely two-prong approach to improve maintenance and sustain ship readiness by predicting maintenance issues and dealing with emergent problems.
The plan is that identifying likely problems and repairs and then planning and managing the required maintenance and fixes would reduce the likelihood of emergencies and ensure warships are operationally ready. And, an expanded knowledge base that’s driven by data analyses, in turn, will enable the Navy to organize and respond quickly to a repair and get the ship underway and operational.
SURFOR has stood up two Surface Readiness Operation Centers – one in San Diego, another in Norfolk, Va. – as a cross-organizational team “where we try to swarm on casualties when they happen on ships,” said McLane, who also commands Naval Surface Force Pacific. “When something breaks, particularly if it’s a weapons system or it’s related to propulsion or energy producing, then we’re really on top of that quickly.”
“We try to do this no matter where the ships are,” he said. “What’s really helping us execute this is the establishment of our surface readiness groups.”
The Navy established the SURFGRUs at fleet concentration areas in late 2023 to lead and guide ship maintenance on the waterfront ahead of their deployments. “We’re running full power with these around the world so when the ship is on deployment, they can hand it off from group to group,” he said. So, a warship deploying west from San Diego checks in from SRGs in Hawaii and in the western Pacific or in Bahrain.
“Those groups provide the local, hands-on, in-the-time-zone-of-the-ship level of support,” he added.
Data and rapid response
SURFOR officials are counting on data collection and analyses – including artificial intelligence and machine learning – to predict what shipboard parts will likely break and to identify what regular maintenance actions are needed to avert trouble at sea.
“One of the things that’s helping us figure out and become more predictive is our Surface Analytics Group that is kind of working hand-in-hand with our readiness operations center,” McLane said. “They kind of analyze trends that we’re seeing both on maintenance and on things that are breaking on the ship, as well as personnel,” he said.
That transition to data analytics is continuing, Rear Adm. Joe Cahill, Naval Surface Force Atlantic Fleet, told reporters, with the intent to enable the service to look operationally “to see that piece of how we could get to that 75” using “a customer-based approach.”
“We have learned a ton,” Cahill said during the media call, adding, “we’re in the business of producing combat-ready warships.”
The work continues to determine value from the data. “It’s helping us to improve our organizational behavior. It’s helping us understand trend lines and… it’s going to enable us to be predictive,” he said. “That’s really the cusp of how we look at it from a force generation standpoint. It’s going to enable us to really have a view that, at the type-commander level, we’ve just never had before.”
“These Readiness Operation Centers give us that ability to harness the data, to visualize it and – to really understand what’s most important – what should we really be focused on as leaders to make organizational changes and increase the readiness piece,” he added.
The first SURFGRU was stood up in early 2022 in Mayport, Fla. “The value of having that group that’s completely focused on building combat readiness for the warships that are under their charge, it’s just tremendously valuable,” Cahill said. “We have invested in the human talent in these organizations,” he said, adding, “we’re excited about the path that we’re on and we’ll continue to learn and adapt in stride.”
Lessons from Iwo Jima
The surface forces’ readiness organizations and maintenance plan was tested in April when issues surfaced with the big-deck amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD-4) shortly after leaving on deployment.
The San Diego-based ship, which had previously grappled with problems that delayed its scheduled January deployment as part of the scheduled Boxer Amphibious Ready Group with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, had to return to San Diego for repairs. Repair teams, including commercial divers, tackled the problem while the ship was pierside at the naval base, largely because no dry dock was available to accommodate the large ship.
McLane said he was proud of the team’s rapid response, and “when we figured out that there was a problem with the rudder, how the entire waterfront came together to really swarm on the problem.”
What aided that response was similar work in May 2023 after a September 2022 inspection of Iwo Jima (LHD-7) found a problem with its rudder bearings.
“They were able to take some of the lessons learned that we got on the East Coast from the Iwo Jima,” he said, where divers “were able to replace the rudders – to reinstall the rudders – while the ship was in the water, which was the first time that ever happened.” In San Diego, he added, “we were able to replace the upper and lower bearings… on both rudders.”
“We are really good at reacting to things, and swarming on things. That’s one of our strengths going back to the beginning of the U.S. Navy,” McLane said. “But getting to the predictive things, that’s really, really hard being able to know early signs of wear and tear.”
Sensors and other newer technologies aboard ships “can tell us, and then we can try to figure out what needs to be replaced before it breaks,” he said. “So we still have a lot of work to do with that part of it. But I am happy with how we are able to tackle things that come up unexpectedly and swarm on it.”
But the larger issue is “the predictive nature… that we want to get to,” he added, with “things like this that pop up and end up kind of throwing a wrench in our great plan. That’s something that we’re going to continue to deal with.”
