Reduced Manning in DDG 51 Class Warships: Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Ahead for Reduced Manning on all United States Navy Ships

摘要

In an effort to move forward smartly with initiatives to reduce manning in U.S. Navy combatants, the Program Executive Office, Ships, commissioned a study to examine and analyze alternatives to reduce manning for Arleigh Burke Class ships with the expectation that lessons learned from this effort would not only benefit current and future flights of DDG 51 Class ships, but would also benefit future ship classes, particularly the DD(X) family of ships. The DDG 51 Reduced Manning Study (Figure 1) was conducted in two phases by a Navy-Industry Team, Phase I Concept Study (Hinkle and Glover 2003 - Concept) and Phase II The Plan for Assured Manning (Hinkle and Glover 2003 - Plan). This paper presents the significant results of the concept portion of this study. This study was coordinated with both past and ongoing manning reduction initiatives, particularly current reduced manning experiments being conducted by Commander, Naval Surface Forces. It came to important conclusions and recommendations regarding ways to reduce manning in DDG 51 Class ships and focused especially on changes in policy, processes, culture, and tradition. The study's manning reduction initiatives covered three primary areas: (1) Achieving economies of scale by moving many functions currently performed by a ship's crew off the ship, (2) Accepting increased levels of risk by eliminating or consolidating some watch stations and reducing some support and hotel services, and (3) Investing in emerging technologies that would reduce the numbers of Sailors needed onboard Navy ships. (11 figures, 9 refs.).