§8674 Examination of Vessels; Striking of Vessels From Naval Vessel Register

Summary

The Navy must appoint groups of officers to inspect its ships, including ones still being built. 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 little advance notice, unless the ship is doing required trials before it officially joins the fleet. The inspection boards must write recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy about which ships, if any, should be removed from the Naval Vessel Register. If the Secretary agrees, the ship’s name is taken off that register. By March 1 each year, the inspection board must brief and send a report to the congressional defense committees. The report must include: a plain summary of how ship material condition compares to required standards; the number and types of ships inspected in the prior fiscal year; and, for in-service ships, material readiness trends by inspected functional area compared to the previous five years. Each report must be sent in a classified version and an unclassified version that can be released to the public without further redaction.