Continuing Resolution Puts U.S. Navy Maintenance, Recruitment at Risk
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a continuing resolution (CR) rather than a budget to fund the federal government for the rest of the year, leaving funding levels effectively flat. Without a normal appropriations bill, the Pentagon lacks funding to offset inflation and the authorities needed to start new programs. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby said that the CR would have several significant effects: at a time when the Navy is working hard to maximize readiness, the flat funding of a full-year CR puts maintenance availabilities for 11 ships at risk. These yard periods would have to be pushed to next year or skipped altogether, which would create growth work and unexpected issues during the next maintenance availability.
The timing is poor for the Navy. Unable to compete with China's PLA Navy on tonnage, the service has embarked on a plan to do more with what it has. Under now-departed CNO Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy set a "stretch goal" to achieve 80 percent surge availability across the entire fleet, matching its targets for aircraft availability. That target remains in place under VCNO Adm. Kilby, who is performing the duties of CNO following Franchetti's dismissal last month.
"Our goal is to achieve and sustain an 80% combat-surge ready (CSR) posture. We began these efforts with naval aviation in 2018, improving the operational availability of tactical aircraft. We are now scaling our efforts across all aviation platforms, as well as in the surface and submarine communities," Adm. Kilby said in prepared testimony.
In addition to the effects of a CR on maintenance and readiness targets, Adm. Kilby warned that the lack of a proper budget could interfere with the service's progress on recruiting. The Navy had a serious recruiting shortfall in 2023, but made an all-out effort to turn it around and succeeded last year in hitting its numbers. Navy recruiters are outperforming targets this year, and the service is on track to reach 100 percent enlisted rating fill by the end of 2026 - so long as the CR doesn't derail the effort.
"I'm very concerned about the impact of the CR on that machine and slowing it down. We want to bring in all the people we need and bring down our gaps at sea, and a CR makes that a little more challenging," said Kilby.
The committee sought input from service leaders on what could be done to allow the armed forces to make the most of the funds they have, including more flexibility to use appropriations for new purposes. Kilby emphasized the value of budgetary flexibility to adapt to new technology and new threats - for example, to pivot funding to meet new drone and missile risks in the Red Sea. These changes are hard to do under a continuing resolution, Adm. Kilby said, so having more flexibility in the budget from the start would allow the Navy to make do more easily when a CR occurs.
Civilian DOD layoffs and an ongoing military-wide hiring freeze are a concern for the service leaders, but Kilby noted that two critical groups - public shipyard employees and the Military Sealift Command mariner pool - are exempt from these workforce reduction initiatives.
The Navy also came in for criticism for the persistent maintenance issues in the amphibious fleet, which have caused friction between the Navy and the Marine Corps for years. Just 13 out of 32 amphibs are currently available for deployment, and General Christopher J. Mahoney (USMC) testified that the current levels of amphib capacity are "not going to do it" to generate USMC warfighting capability. "We have got to get ahead of the maintenance curve, and that means years ahead," said Mahoney.