CBO cites continued US Navy conventionally powered surface ship maintenance delays

The US Navy is spending more money and time maintaining older destroyers, like USS Laboon , shown here operating in the Red Sea. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

The US Navy (USN) continues to struggle with keeping schedule and costs for its conventionally powered surface-fleet ships, according to a recently released report, Maintenance Delays for Conventional Navy Ships, by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“The navy has experienced chronic delays and labor overruns in maintenance on its large conventional ships (that is, ships that are not nuclear-powered),” the CBO noted in its report, released on 10 December.

“Those delays can affect deployment schedules and limit the operational readiness of the navy's fleet,” CBO said in its report that analysed “maintenance events” for two types of such ships – destroyers and amphibious warfare ships – from October 2010 to September 2024.

Maintenance and readiness remain concerns for the USN. For more information, please seeNavy League 2025: US Navy continues to push for combat surge-ready force .

“Schedules for overhauls underestimate their duration, and changes to those schedules have not closed the gap,” the CBO reported. “Maintenance events often take 20% to 100% longer than estimated in the navy's final schedules for those events. The navy has raised its estimates, but the delays have continued to increase – especially for older ships, which have longer scheduled overhauls.”