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Nominee pledges focus on maintenance, cites Hawaii dry dock overruns and long repair backlogs
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Summary
Senators pressed Admiral Daryl Caudle on ship maintenance and depot capacity, pointing to the Pearl Harbor dry dock’s cost overruns and long‑standing repair delays that have kept vessels sidelined for years.
Senators used Admiral Daryl Caudle’s July 24 hearing to spotlight maintenance and depot problems that keep ships out of the fleet and reduce availability.
Sen. Mazie Hirono highlighted the Navy’s new Pearl Harbor dry dock construction, calling it “the largest in DOD history at nearly $4,500,000,000” and noting recent cost growth of roughly $834,000,000 and about a four‑month schedule slip. She sought a commitment that the nominee would personally engage to bring that project back on time and on budget; Caudle replied that he would “work with the team to do the best I can to get that back on plan and back on schedule.”
Lawmakers also raised cases of long‑out‑of‑service vessels. Sen. Mike Rounds and others flagged submarines that have sat in yards for years, using the USS Boise as an example of an extended outage. Caudle described the situation as “an unacceptable story,” attributing part of the problem to earlier decisions to reduce private shipyard in‑service repair capacity and saying he would “take that on” if confirmed.
Several senators pushed for better demand signals and longer lead time for maintenance planning so yards can prepare workforce and parts. On availability, a senator said the Navy’s current availability rates were far below commercial benchmarks, arguing the service should learn from cruise‑line or commercial practices where feasible. Caudle agreed that the Navy needed to improve how it plans and executes availabilities and acknowledged the need for better project management, stable funding, earlier material buys and a trained workforce.
Why it matters: Maintenance and depot capacity directly affect fleet availability, training and deployment schedules. Extended dry dock projects and long repair backlogs reduce the number of ships that can be operationally deployed at any time and complicate force planning.
