Fewer Sailors, More Sensors For Navy Ships

Cmdr. Eric L. Sweigard, the captain of this Aegis cruiser tied up at Pascagoula Naval Station along the Mississippi coast, is looking for a few good sailors. To throw overboard.

To spend $5.5 billion on new ships each year, the Navy has made substantial cuts in its ranks and plans more. One Navy initiative calls for replacing sailors with computerized operations and streamlining technologies.

The Yorktown’s skipper is leading the Navy’s “Smart Ship” program to trim crew size. So far Sweigard has managed to cut 15% from his crew of 350. Improved computers to control everything from guns to radars to firefighting systems have displaced 52 jobs.

That 15% includes cutting the ranks of damage-control sailors, who battle fires and holes below the waterline, from 124 to 64.

Sweigard insists that halving the damage-control crew will not endanger safety; technology will compensate for the reduction.

Fiber-optic cable connected to sensors in every compartment will be able to pinpoint fires and other damage. Sailors will have radios that can broadcast accurate damage reports to the bridge.

“Most of the people in damage control were sailors sent by the captain to find out what the damage was,” Sweigard said. “They were just bumping into one another. Now we will know exactly what’s wrong and get exactly what we need to deal with it.”

But retired Navy Vice Adm. John Shanahan of the Center for Defense Information said Navy priorities set by politicians are forcing excessive reductions in personnel and maintenance. “Men and women are the heart and soul of the Navy,” Shanahan said. “But money for sailors doesn’t get people reelected.”