Summary
The Navy faces affordability challenges as it supports a high pace of operations and increasing ship procurement costs. The Navy has used multiple crews on some submarines and surface ships and has shown it to increase a ship's operational availability. GAO was asked to evaluate the extent to which the Navy, for ship rotational crewing, has (1) employed a comprehensive management approach, (2) developed and implemented guidance, (3) systematically collected, analyzed data, and reported findings, and (4) systematically collected and used lessons learned. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed Department of Defense (DOD) and Navy documentation and best practices for transformation, conducted focus groups, and interviewed DOD and Navy officials.
Rotational crewing represents a transformational cultural change for the Navy. While the Navy has provided leadership in some rotational crewing programs, the Navy has not fully established a comprehensive management approach to coordinate and integrate rotational crewing efforts across the department and among various types of ships. GAO's prior work showed that sound management practices for implementing transformational programs include ensuring top leadership drives the change and dedicating an implementation team. The Navy has not assigned clear leadership and accountability for rotational crewing or designated an implementation team to ensure that rotational crewing receives the attention necessary to be effective. Without a comprehensive management approach, the Navy may not be able to lead a successful transformation of its crewing culture. The Navy has promulgated crew exchange instructions for some types of ships that have provided some specific guidance and increased accountability. However, the Navy has not developed an overarching instruction that provides high-level guidance for rotational crewing initiatives and it has not consistently addressed rotational crewing in individual ship-class concepts of operations. Defense best practices hold that key aspects of a concept of operations include how a set of capabilities may be employed to achieve objectives and identifies by whom, where, and how it is to be accomplished. The Navy has conducted some analyses of rotational crewing; however, it has not developed a systematic method for analyzing, assessing and reporting findings on the potential for rotational crewing on current and future ships. Despite using a comprehensive data-collection and analysis plan in the Atlantic Fleet Guided Missile Destroyer Sea Swap, the Navy has not developed a standardized data-collection plan that would be used to analyze all types of rotational crewing, and life-cycle costs of rotational crewing alternatives have not been evaluated. The Navy has also not adequately assessed rotational crewing options for future ships. As new ships are in development, DOD guidance requires that an analysis of alternatives be completed. These analyses generally include an evaluation of the operational effectiveness and estimated costs of alternatives. In recent surface ship acquisitions, the Navy has not consistently assessed rotational crewing options. In the absence of this, cost-effective force structure assessments are incomplete and the Navy does not have a complete picture of the number of ships it needs to acquire. The Navy has collected and disseminated lessons learned from some rotational crewing experiences; however, some ship communities have relied on informal processes. The Atlantic Sea Swap initiative used a systematic process to capture lessons learned. However, in other ship communities the actions were not systematic and did not use the Navy Lessons Learned System. By not systematically recording and sharing lessons learned from rotational crewing efforts, the Navy risks repeating mistakes and could miss opportunities to more effectively implement crew rotations.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Janet A. St. Laurent
Government Accountability Office: Defense Capabilities and Management
(202) 512-4402
Matters for Congressional Consideration
Recommendation: Because DOD disagreed with our recommendations dealing with assigning clear leadership, establishing an implementation team, developing and promulgating overarching guidance, and improving the use of lessons learned, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to assign clear leadership and accountability for managing rotational crewing efforts.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Because DOD disagreed with our recommendations dealing with assigning clear leadership, establishing an implementation team, developing and promulgating overarching guidance, and improving the use of lessons learned, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to establish an overarching implementation team to provide day-to-day management oversight of rotational crewing efforts, coordinate and integrate efforts, and apply their results to the fleet.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Because DOD disagreed with our recommendations dealing with assigning clear leadership, establishing an implementation team, developing and promulgating overarching guidance, and improving the use of lessons learned, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to develop and promulgate overarching guidance to provide the high-level vision and guidance needed to consistently and effectively manage, implement, and evaluate all rotational crewing efforts.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Because DOD disagreed with our recommendations dealing with assigning clear leadership, establishing an implementation team, developing and promulgating overarching guidance, and improving the use of lessons learned, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to develop overarching guidance to ensure the systematic collection and dissemination of lessons learned pertaining specifically to rotational crewing.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Because DOD disagreed with our recommendations dealing with assigning clear leadership, establishing an implementation team, developing and promulgating overarching guidance, and improving the use of lessons learned, Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to incorporate components of the lessons-learned approach outlined in the Atlantic Fleet DDG Sea Swap Concept of Operations, including, among other things, establishing a lessons-learned team, developing a data-collection plan, and increasing use of the Navy Lessons Learned System.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To facilitate the successful transformation of the Navy's ship-crewing culture, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to assign clear leadership and accountability for managing rotational crewing efforts.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To facilitate the successful transformation of the Navy's ship-crewing culture, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to establish an overarching implementation team to provide day-to-day management oversight of rotational crewing efforts, coordinate and integrate efforts, and apply their results to the fleet.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To facilitate the successful transformation of the Navy's ship-crewing culture, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to develop and promulgate overarching guidance to provide the high-level vision and guidance needed to consistently and effectively manage, implement, and evaluate all rotational crewing efforts.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure effective management, implementation, and evaluation of rotational crewing efforts, the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces, should direct the development and promulgation of concepts of operations by all ship communities using or planning to use rotational crewing, that include a description of how rotational crewing may be employed and the details of by whom, where, and how it is to be accomplished, employed, and executed.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy: U.S. Fleet Forces
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that the Navy assesses the potential of different rotational crewing alternatives for improving performance and reducing costs for ship classes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy, under the purview of the implementation team, to develop a standardized, systematic method for data collection and analysis, assessment, and reporting on the results of rotational crewing efforts, including a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis that includes life-cycle costs, for all rotational crewing efforts.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that the Navy assesses the potential of different rotational crewing alternatives for improving performance and reducing costs for ship classes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy, under the purview of the implementation team, to require, as part of the mandatory analysis of alternatives in the concept refinement phase of the defense acquisition process, assessments of potential rotational crewing options for each class of surface ship in development, including full life-cycle costs of each crewing option.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that the Navy effectively leverages lessons learned, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to develop overarching guidance to ensure the systematic collection and dissemination of lessons learned pertaining specifically to rotational crewing.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that the Navy effectively leverages lessons learned, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy to incorporate components of the lessons-learned approach outlined in the Atlantic Fleet DDG Sea Swap Concept of Operations, including, among other things, establishing a lessons-learned team, developing a data-collection plan, and increasing use of the Navy Lessons Learned System.
Agency Affected: Department of Defense
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Congress may wish to consider requiring the Secretary of Defense to direct the Secretary of the Navy to report to Congress on its progress when the President's budget for fiscal year 2010 is submitted to Congress.
Agency Affected: Congress
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
