Navy ships face growing maintenance delays, costs, watchdog reports

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Navy ships face growing maintenance delays, costs, watchdog reports
By The Associated Press
Feb 3, 07:14 PM
The destroyers Bulkeley, left, and Delbert D. Black are replenished by the USNS John Lenthall in the Atlantic Ocean in February 2012. In the 10 years since, the Navy's operating and support costs have grown while propulsion hours have fallen. (MC3 Cryton Vandiesal/Navy)

Navy ships are getting fewer steaming hours because of growing maintenance delays and costs, a troubling trend that comes as at time when the U.S. is struggling to keep pace with China’s growing fleet.

Operating and support costs grew by about $2.5 billion across 10 ship classes while the number of propulsion hours in which ships were operating or training dipped during a 10-year period that ended in 2021, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

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