"House Mandates Shorter Modernization Periods for..." Topic

…Navy Cruisers.

"House lawmakers are limiting the amount of time the Navy will be able to lay up portions of its fleet of cruisers from four years down to two years, citing combatant commanders' need for the ships' ballistic missile defense technologies.

The current Navy plan allows the service to take two cruisers out of the fleet rotation for modernization upgrades each year for up to four years. No more than six cruisers can be in modernization at any given time, according to the current provision.

Navy officials have described this plan to temporarily lay up portions of the cruiser fleet as a cost saving measure that will modernize the ships and extend their long-term service life. During the time that they are taken out of the operational fleet, the cruisers will save the Navy from paying operating costs and undergo a series of hull, mechanical and electrical upgrades. The ships will also receive combat systems modernization…"

Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Which is great, as long as nothing unexpected happens during the refits.

And something unexpected ALWAYS happens during refits. I've been through … 5 or 6 SSBN refits, which are broadly comparable to the ~9 month long refits all other Navy ships have at the end of a deployment. We just do them 9x faster by throwing every body that will physically fit in the hull at the problem.

Ticos are still essential for BMD?

Do we have to wait for the Flight III Burke DDGs to be operational before we can replace these overloaded and increasingly long-in-the tooth cruisers?

"Which is great, as long as nothing unexpected happens during the refits."

No lie. Given the amount of sea time these things have racked upped, no telling what kind things will show up once they start their refits. These old girls have been run hard most of their lives.