The USS Iwo Jima was back at sea Tuesday after the Navy acknowledged that a breakdown in the engineering room forced the amphibious assault ship to return to Naval Station Norfolk last Thursday.
The ship stalled off the coast of Virginia Beach. An independent ship tracking website, Aviation and Naval Assets, showed the Iwo Jima being helped back into port by tug boats.
The same site showed the ship leaving Norfolk again this Tuesday. The Navy acknowledged to the Military Times that the ship had broken down because of a problem in the engine room.
This was the third Wasp-class ship to suffer maintenance issues in the last year. The ships are used to transport Marines and their equipment.
The Norfolk-based USS Wasp suffered a mechanical failure before it deployed June 1. In April, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti warned the ship may be delayed because of an unnamed mechanical problem.
The San Diego-based USS Boxer was delayed repeatedly in part due to maintenance issues with its propulsion system. Navy investigations showed several problems with basic maintenance damaged the USS Boxer.
The U.S. General Accountability Office recently issued a report that found sailors were poorly trained in maintenance throughout the fleet. Inspectors visited the USS Wasp in Norfolk, along with several other ships and found maintenance crews were chronically understaffed.
“There's just not enough sailors to go around. The fact that the Navy is not providing enough spare parts to the ships, you are going to end up with problems like this,” said Dan Grazier with the Stimson Center, a foreign affairs think tank.
On average, ships are leaving port with 65% of their parts needed to make repairs while underway, according to the GAO.
“The Pentagon would much rather spend money buying new things than maintaining old things,” Grazier said. “If there is a budget crunch, then they will often take money from the operations and maintenance funds to move to procurement.”
The Iwo Jima is in its workup phase ahead of being deployed.
The entire Navy remains in a high operational tempo as tensions remain high in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea.
The USS Eisenhower and USS Ford were deployed to the region in the last year. The USS Wasp and its contingent of Marines from Camp Lejeune remain in the region.
