The Truman tests paved the way for full sea trials, to include the first carrier-based launches and recoveries slated for late 2013.
Personnel
The Navy’s overall manpower continued to drop during 2012, though the service got the word with its 2012 budget that its drawdown would end with the service leveling out with a force of roughly 320,000 over the next five years – the first extended period of stability in nearly two decades.
But ending the drawdown proved to be tougher than simply making an announcement, as the service’s numbers continued to drop throughout the year starting at 324,000 and ending with just above 317,000 on active duty.
Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk admitted in late 2012 that budget cuts had originally projected the service would drop to 314,000, and the service was working hard to stop the decline and stabilize the force.
Gas Turbine Systems Technician (Mechanical) 3rd Class Cameron Johnson and Electronics Technician 3rd Class Keean Nash stand at attention after receiving Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals for their work aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay (CG 53), Feb. 20, 2013. Mobile Bay is deployed with the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions for Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Armando Gonzales
“We had been working toward a lower demand signal, and so we did overshoot [the drawdown],” Van Buskirk said in early December. “We were targeting for a lower force structure and, as a result of that, we did overshoot in terms of targeting a lower [end strength] number.”
But Van Buskirk said that the service was well positioned to make up that shortfall and was increasing re-enlistments and recruiting. Twice in 2012, the service increased accession goals to bring in a total of 36,275 enlisted recruits, or 4,000 more than initially ordered.
In addition, he said that the service could now grow the balanced force it needs for future requirements after cutting 3,000 sailors from overmanned ratings in late 2011 in two Enlisted Retention boards, a move that ultimately reduced the number of overmanned enlisted career fields from 31 to nine.
Officials described the process as “gut wrenching” but necessary, as those ratings had become so overmanned as the force structure changed over the years, resulting in poor advancement and reenlistment opportunities.
“It was certainly a tough process to go through in asking 3,000 of our people to transition from our service,” Van Buskirk said. “And that’s something that we don’t foresee us doing [again] in the future.”
But the benefits of those cuts were apparent as the service is approving nearly 80 percent in most specialties – higher in others – including those 31 ratings affected by the balancing cuts.
Advancement, too, has skyrocketed during the semi-annual petty officer advancement cycles as the chance to move up increased to 33 percent, the highest levels in nearly a decade.
These advancement levels, Van Buskirk said, were in line with what he called “historic norms,” and though he didn’t see any more large increases, he said he expects the current levels to hold, meaning sailors can count on the service maintaining this level in the foreseeable future.
While officers have been spared the involuntary cuts that were made in the enlisted force, they’re still in line to see future reductions of roughly 1,500 billets, cuts that will take the total number of officers to 51,298 at the end of fiscal 2013, though Van Buskirk said the service will do it through “natural attrition” meaning simply not replacing people who leave.
Cryptologic Technician (Technical) Ashley Jones proctors the Navy-wide Petty Officer 1st Class Advancement Exam on the mess decks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), March 7, 2013. Carl Vinson is currently pierside at Naval Air Station North Island, Coronado, Calif. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Timothy A. Hazel
That revelation came on the heels of another announcement in July that the service had a nearly 10,000-sailor gap in filling sea duty billets, and started offering incentives to fix the problem.
Van Buskirk said fixing the problem isn’t simply putting bodies in billets, either; it’s ensuring the sailors with the right skills get to the commands who need their specific talents.
He said that depends on getting the right “fit” and “fill” in the ranks. Fill is the percentage of billets at a command that are filled, whereas fit is making sure that billets requiring special skills – Navy enlisted classifications – are matched with people who possess those skills.
That requirement is to have at least 95 percent of the fill and 90 percent of the fit in specific skills. Fit and fill levels vary across the fleet. But in some cases, fit has been as low as 75 percent, Van Buskirk said.
To fix this problem, the Navy is offering as much as $1,000 for each month a sailor extends on sea duty in a critical billet beyond a normal sea tour. The money is also paid to those who terminate their shore duty to fill a critical billet at sea.
By December, Van Buskirk wasn’t declaring victory, but said that the gaps were filling.
“We are making progress. Our fit and fill are going up for our ships, particularly for the priority ones,” Van Buskirk said. “Overall, we think by the end of fiscal year ’13, that we’ll be meeting greater than the requirements that the fleet needs.”
This article was first published in Defense: Winter 2013 Edition.