Thousands of active-duty sailors' jobs are set to be downsized in fiscal year 2017 via sailor's normal separations and retirements, dimming what had been a rosy personnel outlook. a trimming the ranks in tandem with some force structure cuts. The Navy is cutting thousands of active-duty jobs in 2017,
according to defense officials familiar with the forthcoming budget documents.
The unexpectedly steep cuts will reduce move will cut 5,300 billets from current levels by October 2017, according to defense officials familiar with the Navy's proposal, who said the end strength drop runs in tandem with some proposed force reductions to be unveiled with the full budget proposal on Tuesday.
That's a reduction of about 5,300 jobs from the Navy's current end strength of 328,200, according to the Navy's website.The Navy's proposed budget cuts 6,300 jobs, dropping from 329,200 in 2016 to 322,900. Two defense officials familiar with the Navy's plans said the Navy's proposal in part accounts force reductions that will be rolled out Tuesday.
The officials said the down-sizing to the lower end strength of 322,900 billets, The cuts to end strength, if approved by cCongress, would be managed through natural attrition and dropping cutting accessions. They emphasized that the service isn't , and that the Navy isn’t planning any separation boards to meet the numbers, the officials said.
Personnel officials are also going to try and save some billets by streamlining training, one official said. The service has had issues in the past with having too many sailors holed up in barracks waiting to start training like "A" class up for A school. By cutting down on the number of sailors "awaiting training," as it's known, who aren't manning billets in the fleet, it can eliminate some end-strength needs.
The Navy brought back the early-out program for sailors in over-manned ratings and year groups in 2014. As of October, the Navy was offering more than 750 early outs, which is double what was offered in 2014.
The proposed cuts in 2017 greatly exceed the projected cuts from last year's’ budget by about 3,600 jobs. Officials said last year that the a projected dip in end strength in 2017 was to account for the crews of 11 cruisers the Navy to be parked pierside for long-term modernization overhauls, planning to put into modernization periods, a plan that has seen fierce resistance in congress in the past.
BothThe cruisers Cowpens and Gettysburg were both put into modernization in 2015 and are now manned with skeletonstripped down crews of 45 sailors led by a lieutenant commander commanding officer. Cruisers Chosin and Vicksburg are slated to go into modernization in 2016this year, as well as a dock landing ship.
The cruiser phased-modernization plan is designed to keep these vessels in the fleet longer by putting them into a zero-optempo lay-up pierside. That gives the Navy more time to design and build replacements for the fleet's premier surface combatant, one often called to ride shotgun with the aircraft carrier as the air defense commander. But that plan has had some skeptics. keep the cruiser's air defense command capability in the fleet beyond the service life of the hull, would have put 11 of the fleet's 22 cruisers in lay-up pierside. Then, as the Navy decommissioned one of the 11 in the active fleet, it would take a newly modernized cruiser out of lay-up and put it back in the fleet, holding the number of cruisers at 11 until the Navy finds a suitable replacement for its premier surface combatant.
But lawmakers, including Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Virginia, have been skeptical of the plan, believing it could be a backdoor means for the service to prematurely retire the ships to save money. because of the Navy’s past efforts to prematurely decommission the cruisers as a way of saving money.
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
