{"id":32751,"date":"2019-03-25T16:58:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T16:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/25\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:38:10","slug":"how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/25\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Navy got to be 6K sailors short at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s no secret that the Navy has 6,200 billets in deploying sea duty commands that aren&#8217;t filled. What most don&#8217;t know is how the Navy got here, why it happened and when it will be fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs has been pointed out, we have some manning challenges that we\u2019re working through, right now,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/05\/05\/new-fleet-forces-boss-readiness-is-our-business\/\" target=_blank>Adm. Christopher Grady<\/a> told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/02\/26\/pacfleet-commander-says-this-happens-when-a-ship-isnt-ready-to-deploy\/\" target=_blank>lawmakers during a Feb. 26 hearing.<\/a> \u201cThe number, specifically, is the 6,200 billets at sea that are not filled right now, although, the Navy, with your help, has purchased those billets and we will be flowing them into the fleet, over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Grady, who helms Norfolk-based Fleet Forces Command, knows it\u2019s not a problem that can be instantly fixed because his Navy is faced with two simultaneous challenges \u2014 staffing a growing Navy while trying to plug holes in a fleet that routinely deploys overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/04\/why-big-navy-wants-to-do-more-to-retain-sailors\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"152\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/reenlist2.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Why Big Navy wants to do more to retain sailors<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Navy plans to add 17,000 billets by the end of Fiscal Year 2023.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For much of the past seven years, during an era of austerity for the armed forces, service leaders have been battling to fill 95 percent of billets on vessels heading off on deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critics, however, have voiced concerns that placing a person in a billet doesn\u2019t mean that he or she has all the skills to do the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy tracks another measurement \u2014 \u201cfit\u201d \u2014 that indicates sea duty billets and the percentage that are filled by sailors with the right rating, pay grade and training up to the skill levels necessary to competently execute the assigned mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy wants the \u201cfit\u201d measurement to never dip below 92 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leaders also want to reach the 95 percent fill rate when a ship starts its maintenance phase and then keep it manned up through the training and deployment cycles, but that also doesn\u2019t always occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Sometimes we have to take some risk in the maintenance phase before we have all of the people on board,&#8221; Grady told Congress. &#8220;But it is, I believe, both fleet standards that no one deploys without the full complement of people that they will have.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What Grady didn\u2019t mention was that it\u2019s actually getting gradually better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, the service recorded 6,850 at-sea gaps, 600 billets more than January\u2019s deficit. But that\u2019s still less than half the number of at-sea gaps in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/11\/02\/navy-sees-recruiting-challenges-on-the-horizon\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Recruiting.jpg_9dd7df.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Navy sees recruiting challenges on the horizon<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Navy hopes more recruiters, beefier enlistment bonuses and a wider social media outreach will help bring in the next generation of sailors.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To understand this phenomenon requires a return to the darkest days of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A key lesson that emerged from investigations into the deadly 2017 collisions in the Western Pacific involving the guided-missile destroyers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/11\/28\/warship-john-s-mccain-returns-to-the-water-for-the-first-time-since-last-summers-fatal-collision\/\" target=_blank>John S. McCain<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/01\/14\/worse-than-you-thought-inside-the-secret-fitzgerald-probe-the-navy-doesnt-want-you-to-read\/\" target=_blank>Fitzgerald<\/a> and a pair of commercial vessels was that the warships were undermanned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was a problem that not only plagued the surface fleet but also aviation and submarine crews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Years of manpower drawdowns, especially following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/topics\/budget\/sequestration\" target=_blank>2011 \u201csequestration\u201d budget cuts<\/a> that put automatic funding caps on defense spending in order to divert a default on the federal government\u2019s debt payments, took a toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But so did experiments with \u201coptimal manning\u201d plans that optimistically trimmed manpower flowing to the ships, based partly on assumptions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/02\/26\/pacfleet-commander-says-this-happens-when-a-ship-isnt-ready-to-deploy\/\" target=_blank>about how technology could replace sailors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In early 2012, the Navy tallied 11,495 gaps at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The workhorse of the surface fleet, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, averaged a crew of 240 sailors, with only 92 percent of billets being filled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the Navy began wielding both voluntary and involuntary efforts to rightsize the fleet, the staffing problem initially got worse. Gaps jumped to more than 15,000 in early 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By early 2017, the number of gapped billets had fallen to 4,583 \u2014 between 4 to 12 percent deficits because the demand for sailors at sea still outpaced the supply. And the demand was about to grow larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the McCain and Fitzgerald disasters, the Navy launched studies to figure how many billets were needed at both sea and shore commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe billet demand signal at sea is constantly being updated,\u201d said Capt. Amy Derrick, spokeswoman for the chief of naval personnel. \u201cOver the past year, Navy conducted a comprehensive review of operational afloat manpower planning factors both for time at sea and in-port.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study\u2019s goal, in the wake of the collisions in 2017, was to \u201censure that the manpower requirements for each class of ship accurately captures the true sailor workload.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result was is that the finish line has again moved further out, with manning across all platforms rising by another four to 14 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Derrick said the service is \u201cin the process of applying these updated factors across the Fleet and making associated billing funding adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the workhorse guided-missile destroyer, that means hiking manning by 14 percent, Derrick said. That would bring a crew of about 272 officers and sailors today to 318 in Fiscal Year 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That also will add about 2,500 billets to the fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Navy leaders expect the service to reach appropriate staffing levels by FY 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a moving target, so that 6,200 won\u2019t come down rapidly, because we are increasing the requirement,\u201d Navy Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran told reporters in Norfolk on March 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/11\/vcno-on-the-go-moran-stops-in-norfolk-to-eye-surface-warfare-reforms\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/JMB3019.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VCNO on the go: Moran stops in Norfolk to eye surface warfare reforms<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Adm. Bill Moran&#039;s visit is part of a larger Navy effort to fix the surface warfare fleet after a pair of fatal collisions with commercial vessels in 2017.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To better retain sailors, the Navy has relaxed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.public.navy.mil\/bupers-npc\/career\/careercounseling\/Pages\/HYT.aspx\" target=_blank>its high-year tenure program<\/a> and made it less likely for personnel to be discharged quickly if they fail to meet fitness standards \u2014 even if they will be barred from reenlistment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service also continues to seek <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/04\/why-big-navy-wants-to-do-more-to-retain-sailors\/\" target=_blank>record accession and retention goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moran said that fixing manpower issues is \u201cnever as fast as we would like it\u201d and that \u201cwhen you decide to add sailors, it takes about two years\u201d to actually get them trained and to the fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBy the end of calendar year \u201919 and into \u201920, we\u2019ll get healthier every day,\u201d he predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To VCNO, forward-deployed ships will continue to get the manpower \u201cright away,\u201d which will mean a ready force abroad better \u201cthan it\u2019s ever been on both fit and fill,\u201d even if it will take longer to fill out the rest of the fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re not right at the level they should be,\u201d Moran said. \u201cSo we still have work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But it&#8217;s getting better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":64022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,88,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3087],"class_list":["post-32751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6BJHYUF64FCGPPZR2RMF4KNQGQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/25\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How the Navy got to be 6K sailors short at sea - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"But it&#039;s getting better.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/25\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How the Navy got to be 6K sailors short at sea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But it&#039;s getting better.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/03\/25\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-25T16:58:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T19:38:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. Faram\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark D. Faram\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/staging.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/news\\\/your-navy\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/staging.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/news\\\/your-navy\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/how-the-navy-got-to-be-6k-sailors-short-at-sea\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/staging.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1587e1f8c0d41f0683bf42b02602ad8\"\n\t            },\n\t            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