A Chinese military magazine has highlighted a spate of non-combat losses across the US Navy, claiming they have eroded the fleet’s capabilities and exposed “systemic pressure and shortcomings”.
The report in Naval & Merchant Ships pointed to fires, electrical failures and propulsion issues on America’s most advanced warships in recent months.
They include the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the USS Zumwalt destroyer, Nimitz-class carrier the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and Arleigh Burke-class destroyer the USS Higgins.
The report said the problems had revealed critical vulnerabilities stemming from excessive deployments, an overreliance on technology and inadequate shipyard support.
“The shared underlying problem reflected by this is the systemic pressure and shortcomings in the areas of equipment management, maintenance support and damage control,” the report in the magazine’s May edition concluded.
“These issues – manifesting as non-combat losses – are continuously eroding the fleet’s combat capabilities,” it said, adding that the risks were rising.
