Navy League 2025: Red Sea operations depend on combat systems maintenance

USS Laboon is pictured during operations in the Red Sea in June 2024. Like other destroyers, the ship relies on its Aegis radar suite, which requires more proactive maintenance to sustain combat. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

Sustaining high-tempo US Navy (USN) surface-ship combat operations in the Red Sea depends on proper maintenance of the vessels out there, especially Aegis systems on the warships deployed to the region, according to USN officials.

“We've learnt that from fighting in the Red Sea now for the last 18 months we have 31 combat critical systems,” Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, commander of the Naval Surface Force, said on 7 April during a panel on readiness at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space 2025 conference and symposium.

“Those have to be operating,” Vice Adm McLane said. “The spare parts for those systems have to be in the storeroom of that ship.”

Speaking during the same panel, acting Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral James Kilby cited the need for more proactive maintenance on Aegis components, particularly those related to the SPY radar suite.

“That hasn't always been our behaviour, especially initially when we introduced Aegis to the fleet,” Adm Kilby said. “When we kept the radar of them, we didn't want to take it down, because something bad might happen. You must maintain your radar if it is to perform when you need it to perform. You have to do effective transfer of power. You have to do isolation. You have to understand the conditions of that system. Those are all the tenets we're talking about here.”