USN ships 'cannibalise' equipment to pass inspections, Congress told

The US Navy (USN) is relying heavily on a maintenance option the service considers "a drastic measure to only be utilised as a last resort" to allow its ships to pass their basic inspections and maintain the operational effectiveness of its fleet, according to previously unreleased data provided to the US Congress and obtained by Jane's .
In four consecutive quarters in 2010 the USN reported a rate of so-called "cannibalisation" of components between ships of on average twice the current allowable maximum allowed limit (MAL) of about one instance per four ships (.28), according to the data.
"It's not a cost efficiency when we look at our cannibalisation rates," Vice Admiral Kevin McCoy, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), told a US congressional committee on 12 July. "That means we're taking parts off one ship to put on another ship so we can meet the inspections."
Across the fleet in 2010, the USN saw an average rate of cannibalisation of .48, or about one instance per two ships across the entire year. Across the nine ship classes identified in the data, five ship classes exceeded the MAL.

By Sam LaGrone