Right-Sizing Navy Ship Crews
Posted on July 06, 2017
Operating and maintaining the Navy’s ships is a 24/7 job. Having the right number of sailors onboard with the right skills is crucial for keeping the fleet in prime condition and for ensuring that sailors aren’t being overworked.
Today’s WatchBlog explores how the Navy mans its ships—and how it can improve to meet the needs of its growing fleet. Read on and listen to our podcast with John Pendleton, a Director in our Defense Capabilities and Management team, for more details.
Do we have enough sailors?
While the Navy has a process to calculate how big a ship’s crew needs to be, and what kind of skills the crew needs to have, it may be underestimating how many sailors it really needs to run its ships. And fewer sailors means more work for the whole crew, as well as a potential backlog of work that isn’t getting done on time.

(Excerpted from GAO-17-413)
- A Navy study found that sailors were working as much as 20 hours more than they’re supposed to in a week, and that’s not even counting the time they’re expected to spend on training and other duties. With only so many hours in a week, that means sailors have to cut into their rest or other downtime—creating potential hazards for both safety and morale.
- The Navy also didn’t consider the amount of work sailors are expected to do while ships are in port. When a ship comes in from sea, sailors are expected to refresh their training and take leave, which leaves fewer sailors aboard to tackle all the work that needs to get done while the ship is docked.
(Excerpted from GAO-17-413)
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