U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations, has said service branch leaders have told President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team that the Navy needs additional funds to initially support maintenance and modernization of its current fleet of 274 ships prior to procurement of new vessels, USNI News reported Wednesday.
He told attendees of the Surface Navy Association meeting Tuesday in Virginia that “deferred maintenance†of ships has taken its toll on sailors’ proficiency and operational requirements of combatant commanders, John Grady writes.
Moran expressed support to the new force structure assessment that seeks to increase the military branch’s fleet to 355 ships, according to a report by Hope Hodge Seck for DoD Buzz.
He also called for a reduction in both operational tempo and duration of ship deployments, Seck reports.
“We’re purposefully taking risk to find the time to make sure that we don’t get deployments extended beyond seven months, we get those ships back, we get them in maintenance and we commit to the funding,†Moran added, according to the report.
