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The six month standard adhered to during the late Cold War and after is now a thing of the past, a victim of too small a fleet spread across too large a number of requirements. Deployment length has been inching up for over a decade, tracking inversely with the size of the fleet, and the news is replete with stories like the one I cited above, in which the CARL VINSON Strike Group was deploying on a scheduled ten-month deployment.
Which brings us to yesterday’s Navy Times story in which the CNO stated during an All Hands Call that lengthy eight-month deployments are no longer sustainable, and seven-month deployments are achievable
Read the entire article at Information Dissemination.
Bryan McGrath is the Managing Director of The FerryBridge Group LLC, a defense consultancy, and the Assistant Director of the Hudson Center for American Seapower.
DoD photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Paul J. Perkins, U.S. Navy.
