Force Structure: Navy Needs to Fully Evaluate Options and Provide Standard Guidance for Implementing Surface Ship Rotational Crewing

The Navy has taken steps towards systematically evaluating the feasibility and cost-effectiveness for current and potential applications of rotational crewing on surface ships. For example, the Atlantic DDG Sea Swap initiative used a comprehensive data collection and analysis plan for collecting, analyzing, and evaluating data and for reporting results. However, the Atlantic Fleet DDG Sea Swap Experiment Analysis Plan did not include a thorough cost-effectiveness analysis (see GAO-08-418). The Navy plans to leverage the findings from the Atlantic DDG Sea Swap initiative to support the multi-crewing constructs for Littoral Combat Ship and being considered for DDG-1000.

We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Navy to provide guidance that specifies standard policies and procedures for rotating crews to ensure consistent management of and accountability for ship operations during the rotation. DOD concurred with our recommendation. During planning for the Atlantic Fleet DDG Sea Swap Initiative the Commander, Naval Surfaces Forces, promulgated standard policies and procedures for conducting Sea Swap in the form of a Concept of Operations (CONOPs). The CONOPS provided an overview of the vision, purpose and plan for implementing the Atlantic Fleet Destroyer (DDG) Sea Swap Initiative and identified issues that needed to be addressed during implementation, as well as many of the important roles and responsibilities and considerations for deciding where they should be assigned. Additionally, the CONOPs described crew rotation schedules, procedures, and training processes; addressed operational considerations for the deploying ship and crews, as well as the non-deploying ships and crews supporting the Fleet Response Plan (FRP); documented planned turn-over procedures for both ships and crews, both in the forward-deployed theater of operations and in the Atlantic Fleet Area of Operations; and, discussed processes for placing the non-deploying ships in a caretaker status during Sea Swap crew turnover periods.

We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Navy to systematically collect, record, and disseminate lessons learned pertaining to rotational crewing in the Navy Lessons Learned System to enhance knowledge sharing. DOD concurred with our recommendation. The Navy has taken several actions. First, it has institutionalized the use of the Navy Lessons Learned System (NLLS) as a means to collect, record and disseminate lessons learned on rotational crewing. Second, it has provided visibility to these lessons by establishing rotational crewing as a "Fleet Operational Issues" link on the NLLS web page. Thirdly, the NLLS site has focused attention on lessons learned by publishing a "Highlights" summary of rotational crewing as part of its "Monthly Lessons Highlights" bulletin, accessible by the internet or via electronic mail subscription.

We recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Navy to conduct a study of the maintenance processes used for all ships involved in rotating crews and to examine, as part of this study, opportunities to mitigate the crews' concerns about maintenance workload to improve their quality of life. In conducting the Atlantic Fleet DDG Sea Swap Initiative, the Navy developed and implemented a rigorous methodology to examine the maintenance processes for ships in the experiment to determine the impact of maintenance and repair associated with rotational crewing. As part of this study, the Navy also developed and implemented a rigorous methodology to assess the impact of maintenance workload associated with Sea Swap on crew quality of life. The Navy plans to leverage the findings from this study to support multi-crewing constructs planned for Littoral Combat Ship and DDG-1000.