The Government Accountability Office reports that, over the past 10 fiscal years, U.S. Navy attack submarines suffered significant maintenance service delays resulting in protracted idle times and billions of dollars in support costs.
The GAO said following a recent audit that, from fiscal 2008 to the end of the current fiscal year, the Navy’s attack submarines will have spent more than 10,000 days sitting inoperable at various shipyards across the country due to on-going maintenance or delays. According to the government watchdog’s computations, the amount of time these boats will have spent idling translates to more than $1.5B lost in operating and support costs.
Maintenance delays have been attributed to the Navy’s over-reliance on public shipyards, which have been operating above capacity, and the underutilization of private ones. The GAO called on the Navy’s leadership to carry out a business case analysis to determine how to expedite maintenance services.
