By SAM FELLMAN
Caught between a straining operations pace and continued budget woes, the surface Navy’s top boss warned Tuesday that his force of 167 ships is drifting ever closer to a readiness drop-off.
Vice Adm. Tom Copeman said the surface fleet was “pretty close” to going hollow in an answer to an audience member’s question at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Va.
“When a combatant commander says a ship’s supposed to leave on deployment and it doesn’t leave on time for whatever reason, then we know we’ve probably gotten there,” Copeman told an audience of hundreds of officers and industry leaders. “And there’s ships right now that aren’t doing it.”
In a speech that centered on the challenges of shrinking budgets, Copeman warned that the surface Navy may need to sacrifice ships in the coming budget battles to ensure the ones it keeps are fully manned and equipped.
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