Substandard repairs and a slow bureaucracy have caused U.S. Navy ships to sit in repair yards for years without being used, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Between one- and two-thirds of U.S. surface ship maintenance has lagged behind schedule in recent years, U.S. officials have said, according to The Wall Street Journal. The delays exacerbate America’s problem of failing to build ships as swiftly as China, a top adversary working to expand its presence in the Indo-Pacific region and threaten U.S. interests.
Repairs of Navy ships continue to fall behind schedule despite millions of dollars spent, with U.S. destroyers taking a combined 2,633 extra days to repair than expected in 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Navy official told the outlet that the number of delay days actually marked an improvement. A lack of experienced repair workers contributes to the problem, as many individuals with the needed skills are not attracted by the low pay offered, the report said.
One example was the USS Helena, a craft that was about to leave dock after more than six years of repairs in 2024 when a young sailor was electrocuted and killed aboard the vessel, dooming it to the repair docks again, The Wall Street Journal reported. Weeks later, the Helena finally left the docks, only to be decommissioned in July 2025.
The importance of naval readiness is heightened given that the Trump administration has signaled that it could intervene in a potential China-Taiwan war, and that any such conflict would largely occur at sea. Naval experts fear that the repair problems could keep ships and submarines tucked away at docks when they are most needed during a possible conflict with China, The Wall Street Journal reported. Additionally, the less reliable ships there are, the more time they spend at sea incurring damages that require longer repairs upon their return, the outlet noted.
Intelligence has suggested that China could move to seize Taiwan by as soon as 2027. The communist regime also conducted large military drills around the island in April, and was even caught sending a vessel in the vicinity of Hawaii in July.
“Today, the U.S. ranks 19th in the world in commercial shipbuilding, and we build less than 5 ships each year, while the [Chinese government] is building more than 1,700 ships,” the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in January.
The Pentagon responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment by deferring to the Navy, which did not respond. A Navy official told The Wall Street Journal that 49 construction projects are in progress that could improve repair infrastructure.
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