The US Navy says it's becoming 'nearly impossible' to maintain its ships with Congress holding more than $20 billion hostage

Associated Press

The USS George Washington in the shipyard

• The US Navy is worried that its maintenance problems, already quite serious from delays and backlogs, are about to get even worse thanks to Congress.
• The service says that more than $20 billion, including $5.6 billion for operations and maintenance, could be affected by an extended continuing resolution.
• The service's acquisitions chief warns that as many as 14 planned maintenance availabilities, as well as one carrier overhaul, could be impacted.
• Under the current short-term CR, the Navy has already had to put a hold on two maintenance availabilities, for the destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Gonzalez.

The US Navy has faced serious maintenance backlogs on everything from submarines to surface ships for years, and is bracing for these problems to get worse as Congress injects uncertainty into the Navy's plans.

The service has been under the budgetary restrictions of a short-term continuing resolution for just over a month, and it has already been forced to put a hold on planned maintenance for the destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Gonzalez, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition James Geurts revealed to reporters Friday.

Due to an impasse in Congress, lawmakers have yet to pass the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act, leaving the US military in bind.

In the event of a year-long CR, the Navy could see $20.6 billion, roughly 10% of its budget request, affected.

With an anticipated operations and maintenance shortfall of $5.6 billion, the Navy expects to cancel or defer as many as 14 maintenance availabilities, as well as the planned mid-life overhaul of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, Navy documents show.

And, Geurts said, there will likely be additional inefficiencies in the industrial base as a result of work delays.

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer has said repeatedly that the Navy sailed the bottoms off its ships without doing the proper maintenance, and now the service is paying the price. An extended CR is only going to exacerbate these problems.

"Ship maintenance is a very hard, complicated job to do as it is," Geurts said. "It is nearly impossible when you have unpredictability in the budget."

For traditional defense industry partners, companies aren't sure whether or not to hire workers or order materials, meaning they are going to be less ready when the work comes. For non-traditional industry teams, firms hypersensitive to cash flow, the instability caused by a CR can often be a deal breaker.

"That's going to not only impact our readiness, our modernization and our ability to deliver to sailors and Marines today, [but] that will lurk with us for two to three years," he added.

The Navy still has aircraft carriers that are stuck in maintenance years beyond their class maintenance requirements, such as the USS George H.W. Bush, which is going to be in the yard for 28 months. And, these problems persist despite the tireless efforts by the Navy to dig itself out of the hole.

An extended CR, especially for a year, is only going to make it harder for the Navy to get ships back on the class maintenance plan, Geurts said, explaining that the current situation erodes readiness at a critical time.