The Navy always seems to have timing and priority problems. Why didn’t the service push women in submarines a few years back? It makes a lot more sense to drive a social agenda in times when it is more favorable to do so. Budgets were not as tight; the economy was not in a recession and the mood for women in combat was not a problem. The right time would have been before the modification of the first four Ohio Class submarines into SSGNs. The design could have easily incorporated women, cost would be a fraction of the overall budget for the conversion and the length of time in the yard would have provided ample time and opportunity for women to enter the pipeline and be ready to join the first SSGN crew with the appropriate PR splash. Now is a poor time for this, money is tight and the service has a number of higher priorities. One problem is that they just can’t say no to some things they should say no to and can’t seem to approve things they should approve. Much of this simply distracts from the mission and shows a lack of leadership. The Navy’s leaders just can’t seem to make the right or the hard choices with any consistency.
Secretary Mabus stated that, “We think this is a great idea that will enhance our warfighting capabilities." Is he talking about the U. S. Submarine Force? Please Mr. Secretary call it what it is, expanding the role of women in the Navy, the submarine force works just fine and has for the last 110 years. Don’t insult the “Silent Service”. By all means, get the approval, then when you have money you don’t need to say, accomplish the planned shipbuilding numbers, spend that money to put women on submarines.
Right, this is hindsight of course, but problems with priorities and timing are not isolated occurrences, they are endemic. For example:
The current deployment of the Littoral Combat Ship USS FREEDOM is early according to the Navy. The schedule called for a deployment in 2012. There is both an operational and political consideration here. Certainly as the CFFC Commander Admiral Harvey states, they do want to integrate the ship into the fleet, but also they need to prove the concept to Congress. It is a great departure from how the Navy usually operates; each ship has the capability to conduct a wide variety of missions. LCS will be capable of conducting only one, perhaps two, missions at a time with the installation of the applicable warfare capability.
The Crew of LCS numbers just 40. The installed warfare modules will bring an additional 35 people, 75 total. To make this concept work a lot of maintenance and other functions must move ashore, the at sea time will need to be reduced from legacy ships and the smaller crew will need to take on a greater burden across a number of warfare, operational and maintenance areas to make it all work. This is a great formula for overwork a greater cognitive workload, stress, therefore fatigue, therefore reduced performance, etc. etc. A line from the movie Ben Hur comes to mind.
“You are all condemned men, we keep you alive to serve this ship, row well and live”
As much as the Navy seeks social progress, it is slow to adopt policies and procedures that will ensure the continued readiness of the Navy as a fighting force that would not necessarily need to fight, but if it did there would be no problem with performance or endurance. The United States Coast Guard has figured this out. Just like the Navy the Coast Guard is in high demand, performing fatiguing duties even more often than her sister service. The Coast Guard, however, recognizes the utility of understanding and mitigating fatigue. They call their program the Crew Endurance Management System (CEMS) and they put a lot of basic research behind this effort. The Navy has a great opportunity to study the first few LCS ships and the new manning model. A proper study will provide useful data that will influence decisions for the entire class. You don’t want to screw up an entire 55 ship class and you don’t want to continue with the mantra of the crew enduring and managing like the folks in Ben Hur.
LCS to Deploy Early
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=48930
LCS Crew Manning
http://peoships.crane.navy.mil/FAQ_JHSV_vs_LCS.htm
U. S. Coast Guard Crew Endurance Management System
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg5211/docs/CEM_The_System_PRESS.pdf
Navy to Build 55 LCS
http://www.news.navy.mil/navco/speeches/2009/SECNAV-SNA_15Jan09.pdf
Mabus and Women in Submarines
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=51571