§8674 Examination of vessels; striking of vessels from Naval Vessel Register

Summary

The Secretary of the Navy must pick panels of naval officers to inspect Navy ships, including ones still being built, and tell the Secretary which ships, if any, should be removed from the Naval Vessel Register. Each ship should be checked at least once every three years when possible. Inspections done on or after January 1, 2020 must give the crew very little advance warning, unless the ship is in required trials before joining the fleet. The panel writes its recommendations, and if the Secretary agrees, the ship’s name is removed from the register. By March 1 each year the panel must brief and send a report to the congressional defense committees. The report must include a plain summary of how ship equipment and systems compare to required readiness standards, the number and kinds of ships inspected in the preceding fiscal year, and, for ships in service, readiness trends by inspected area compared to the previous five years. The report must be submitted in a classified version and an unclassified version that can be released to the public without further redaction.