Force Structure. Ship Rotational Crewing Initiatives Would Benefit from Top-Level Leadership, Navy-wide Guidance, Comprehensive Analysis, and Improved Lessons-Learned Sharing
Abstract
The Navy faces affordability challenges as it supports a high pace of operations and increasing ship procurement costs. The Navy has used multiple crews on some submarines and surface ships and has shown it to increase a ship's operational availability. GAO was asked to evaluate the extent to which the Navy, for ship rotational crewing, has (1) employed a comprehensive management approach, (2) developed and implemented guidance, (3) systematically collected, analyzed data, and reported findings, and (4) systematically collected and used lessons learned. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed Department of Defense (DOD) and Navy documentation and best practices for transformation, conducted focus groups, and interviewed DOD and Navy officials. GAO recommends that DOD take several actions, including assigning leadership; establishing an implementation team; promulgating guidance; developing a systematic data-collection and analysis plan; assessing crewing options in analyses of alternatives; and developing guidance for rotational crewing lessons learned. DOD partially agreed with three recommendations but disagreed with five others. To facilitate transformation of the Navy's ship crewing culture, GAO included a matter for congressional consideration that would require DOD to establish clear leadership; an implementation team; and overarching guidance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA482332
Entities
People
- Janet St. Laurent
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office