US Navy hobbled by failures as the risk of conflict with China looms

"Potential adversaries, most notably China and Russia, have developed and enhanced their own capabilities," said the Government Accountability Office's military readiness director

By Tony Capaccio

The Navy is the most hobbled by readiness failures among the four US military service branches, according to congressional auditors, a worrisome assessment given the crucial role it would play in any potential conflict with China.
 

The Navy piled up the most problems in its “resource readiness” rating from 2017 through 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office. The classified rating measures how well the military services acquire parts, personnel, supplies and training to be “mission-capable.”

“Potential adversaries, most notably China and Russia, have developed and enhanced their own capabilities,” Diana Maurer, the Government Accountability Office’s military readiness director, said in a prepared statement for a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. “At the same time, our work has shown that nearly two decades of conflict has degraded U.S. military readiness.”

The services judge readiness in two ways: Do units have adequate resources, and can they execute their missions? GAO’s statement highlighted “key findings and recommendations from more than three dozen GAO reports on different aspects of military readiness,” Maurer said.  “And what we’ve found is rather troubling.”

Although her presentation mostly summarized past reports, including a particularly damning one in January on surface ship readiness, bringing them together paints a daunting picture of the depth and breadth of readiness challenges the Navy faces.

“Readiness increased in the ground domain and declined in the sea domain from fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2021, and rating changes were mixed in the air and space domains,” Maurer said in the statement.

The GAO compilation raises questions about the Navy’s current capability to defeat China if conflict erupts over its claims to Taiwan. Some analysts say China could have the military capability to seize the island democracy by force as soon as 2027.

The GAO said that a Navy estimate of funds needed to clear its maintenance backlog totaled $1.7 billion for surface ships and almost $100 million for aircraft carriers.

Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations, told a House panel last month that some ships are “manned, they’re trained, they’re equipped” and ready for combat operations. But overall, he said, “I’m not satisfied with where we are with respect to maintenance and readiness of the force. It does need to improve.”