The Navy's long-awaited fitness suit has been delayed yet again, but this time there's a light at the end of the tunnel, officials say.
NAVADMIN 015/17, released Jan. 27, cites "unforeseen technical production issues" in announcing a slip in the rollout of the new uniform at boot camp, which was pushed out six months from from Oct. 1, 2016 to a new expected issue start date of April 1.
"The technical issue that resulted in the delay of the introduction of the fitness suit was associated with manufacturing and assembly of the fitness suit components," said Sharon Anderson, spokeswoman for the chief of naval personnel. "The issue has been successfully addressed and corrected by the manufacturer."
This means that, though production is back on track, the previously announced availability of this new uniform in exchanges has been put off until further notice.
Officials had previously announced in late 2015 that Jan. 2017 — this past month — would see the uniforms available for sale in exchanges.
It's unclear at this time if these latest delays will impact the uniform's mandatory wear date currently set at Jan. 1, 2020.
The Navy announced that this latest attempt to design a fitness suit from scratch was a success, ending their 10-year search for a warm-up suit for the Navy's physical training outfit.
And early discussions went back and forth from the suit being an "optional" component that sailors would have to buy themselves or an issue item required in the seabag as the current suit now in production will be.
Navy officials told Navy Times Jan. 27 that they do not have any photos of the issue suit now in production, yet. But NavAdmin message 236/15 released Oct. 9, 2015 described the uniform as a "two piece UNISEX garment consisting of jacket and pants made of 100 percent nylon, dark blue in color with gold Navy logos and silver reflective piping."
The jacket and pants will also be allowed for wear with civilian clothes while in a liberty status. This, however, will also be subject to approval by local or regional commanders.
The search for a Navy running suit started in 2007, when officials were developing a total physical training uniform package. Initial wear tests in 2008 were a failure.
Four years later, tests of multiple designs at Recruit Training Command also produced no usable prototypes and officials then turned to adopting what worked best from other service's models, too.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
