Navy seeks to simplify ship maintenance.

The U.S. Navy is working to reduce the time that its ships spend in maintenance, said Rear Adm. Mark A. Hugel, deputy director for fleet readiness.

It's a key part of the Navy's "fleet response plan," Hugel told National Defense. The plan-which was adopted in 2003--requires the fleet to be able to deploy its ships anywhere in the world within 30 days of notice. To demonstrate the concept, the Navy in the summer of 2004 simultaneously deployed seven carrier strike groups to five theaters.

To keep ships ready to deploy, the Navy is trying to minimize the time they are laid up for maintenance, Hugel said. Increasingly, he explained, ship repairs are being done at dockside or even while the vessel is under way.

Some repairs are relatively minor and don't require a ship to spend months in a shipyard, Hugel said. "If a pump breaks down, you disassemble it, do the repairs and put it back together," he said. "You don't need a shipyard for that."

Much of the maintenance is done on a daily basis by the ship's crew, Hugel said. "If they can't fix a problem on their own, they often can get help by e-mail from experts back in the shipyard. If they need a part, they can get it shipped to them, sometimes overnight."

If the problem is really complex, a shipyard can put together a small team of experts and come to the ship, even if it is forward deployed, Hugel said.

If necessary, a ship can pull into a U.S. naval base in another country, such as Rota, Spain, or Naples, Italy, for repairs. U.S. vessels can seek repairs in foreign ports, such as Singapore or Marseilles, only in emergencies, Hugel said. Federal law requires that such work be done in U.S. shipyards whenever possible, he explained.

The Navy now operates four shipyards-Portsmouth, N.H.; Norfolk, Va.; Puget Sound, Wash., and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It also contracts with private shipyards.

Each ship has a lifetime maintenance program that was drawn up when the vessel was built, Hugel noted. The program is modified as technology changes over the years.

A careful maintenance program is necessary to keep ships operating for half a century, as the Navy expects, Hugel said. For example, he said, his first ship was the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). "That was in 1978, and she was almost 20 years old then. She got new gas [nuclear fuel] in the early '90s, and she's supposed to last another 25 years [after refueling]."

Despite efforts to reduce maintenance time, ships still are required to check into shipyards from time to time for major repairs and upgrades. After a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has been in service for 25 years, for example, she undergoes a three-year program to refuel her reactors, upgrade and modernize combat and communications systems and overhaul her hull, mechanical and electrical systems.

In 2004, the Navy sent in 79 vessels-including 50 that deployed in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere-for work at a cost of $3.6 billion, Hugel told a congressional hearing. During that same year, he said, the service received $600 million in supplemental funding to pay for increased maintenance needs resulting from the increased operational tempo of wartime. In 2005, 105 ships will get repairs at an estimated price tag of $4 billion.

The USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), one of the Navy's two remaining conventionally powered aircraft carriers, was scheduled to begin a $350 million overhaul this year. The deadline for bidding on the job, however, was postponed in January amid rumors that the ship would be retired early. It had been scheduled for decommissioning in 2018, but the Navy's 2006 budget proposal, released in February, calls for reducing its carrier fleet from 12 to 11 vessels.

Meanwhile, the Navy has launched three initiatives to improve operations at the shipyards, Hugel said. "One Shipyard" emphasizes coordination of both public and private shipyards as a single national industrial base for more efficient vessel maintenance. "SHIPMAIN" aims to streamline ship alterations and maintenance-planning processes to reduce redundant work and improve communications among ship-maintenance organizations. Regional maintenance waterfront integration seeks to increase local coordination of ship-repair services.