GAO

United States General Accounting Office

Report to Congressional Committees

April 1999 FORCE STRUCTURE

Navy Is Complying 

With Battleship 

Readiness 

Requirements

GAO/NSIAD-99-62

United States

General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548 Letr

Page 1 GAO/NSIAD-99-62 Force Structure

GAO

National Security and

International Affairs Division

B- 280495 Letter

April 12, 1999

The Honorable John Warner,

Chairman

The Honorable Carl Levin,

Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Armed Services

United States Senate

The Honorable Floyd Spence,

Chairman

The Honorable Ike Skelton,

Ranking Minority Member

Committee on Armed Services

House of Representatives

This letter responds to one of our three reporting requirements stated in 

section 1015 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act 

for Fiscal Year 1999. The reporting requirements involve issues associated 

with the status and future of the Navy’s Iowa class battleships. This letter 

addresses our requirement to report on the Navy’s compliance with 

battleship readiness requirements contained in section 1011 of the National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996. Specifically, we evaluated 

the Navy’s compliance with the requirements to (1) list and maintain at 

least two Iowa class battleships on the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) that are 

in good material condition and capable of providing adequate fire support 

for an amphibious assault; (2) retain the existing logistical support 

necessary to keep at least two Iowa class battleships in active service, 

including technical manuals, repair and replacement parts, and ordnance; 

and (3) keep the two battleships on the register until the Secretary of the 

Navy certifies that the Navy has within the fleet an operational surface fire 

support capability that equals or exceeds the fire support capability that 

the Iowa class battleships would be able to provide for Marine Corps 

amphibious assaults and operations ashore. The NVR is the official 

inventory of ships and service craft in custody or titled by the Navy and 

includes those assigned to the Military Sealift Command.

Section 1015 also requires us to report on (1) the Navy’s plans for executing 

the naval surface fire support mission and the short-term and long-term 

costs associated with these plans and (2) the Navy’s assessment of 

alternative methods and costs for executing the fire support mission, 
B- 280495

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including the alternative of reactivating two battleships. As agreed with 

your offices, these issues will be addressed in separate reports. 

Results in Brief The Navy is complying with the battleship readiness requirements stated in 

the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996. The Navy 

placed two Iowa Class battleships on the register about 2 years after the 

act’s requirement took effect. Both ships are in good material condition 

and have been maintained on the register in the highest readiness category 

for inactive ships. The Navy’s Board of Inspection and Surveys had 

declared all four of the Iowa Class battleships fit for further service at the 

time of their last decommissioning.

The Navy is retaining the existing logistical support necessary for active 

operations of the battleships, including technical manuals, repair and 

replacement parts, and ordnance. The battleship logistics support 

structure is largely intact, and according to the Navy, production of 16-inch 

ammunition and propellant could be resumed within a few months. 

Further, two Navy shipyards have the capabilities and facilities needed to 

work on battleship-size vessels.

According to officials, the Navy plans to keep the battleships on the 

register until its current naval surface fire support gun and missile 

development programs achieve operational capability, which is estimated 

to occur between fiscal year 2003 and 2008. At that time, it plans to remove 

the battleships from the register and certify that the fleet has an operational 

surface fire-support capability that equals or exceeds that of the 

battleships. In the interim, the Navy does not intend to return any 

battleships to active service. The Navy states that the battleships cannot 

meet current naval surface fire support requirements for range and 

accuracy and cost too much to operate. The Marine Corps supports this 

position.

Background Four Iowa class battleships were built for the Navy during World War II. 

Each ship is equipped with nine 16-inch guns that can fire a variety of 

projectiles weighing up to 2,700 pounds to a range of 23 nautical miles

(see fig.1). Although they were designed primarily for combat with other 

ships, the battleships have been used to strike shore targets and provide 

fire support to maneuvering ground troops. 
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Figure 1: U.S.S. Iowa

Source: U.S. Navy.

Since their construction, these ships have been decommissioned and 

reactivated many times and were in inactive service more than in active 

service. For example, the U.S.S. Iowa was in inactive service twice as long 

as it was in active service (36 years, 9 months, compared to 18 years,

11 months). During the 1980s, the Navy spent about $1.7 billion to 

modernize and reactivate the four Iowa class battleships—U.S.S. Iowa, 

U.S.S. New Jersey, U.S.S. Missouri, and U.S.S. Wisconsin. During their 

reactivation, each of these ships was fitted with 16 Harpoon and 32 

Tomahawk missile launchers, along with updated communications, fire 

control, and target acquisition systems. After the Cold War, the Navy again 

decommissioned these ships, but it kept them in a mobilization status and 
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maintained their logistical support structure. The U.S.S. Missouri and the

U.S.S. Wisconsin were used in the Gulf War to provide Tomahawk missile 

strikes and naval surface fire support (NSFS) to ground forces. The Navy 

decommissioned these two battleships in 1991 and 1992. All four were 

removed from the register in 1995. 

Ships removed from the NVR can be disposed of by donation and used as 

memorials, sold to foreign governments, or scrapped. When the Iowa class 

battleships were removed in 1995, the Navy intended for them to be 

donated and used as memorials. When the battleships were listed on the 

NVR in February 1998, they were placed in maintenance category “B,” 

which is the highest category for a mobilization asset. To preserve vessels 

in a category “B,” the Navy dehumidifies them, provides a special 

protection to the hull, and installs fire and flooding alarms. 

Battleships in Good 

Condition Added to 

Naval Register

About 2 years after section 1011 was enacted, the Navy reinstated two 

battleships on the NVR. Navy officials said part of the delay in complying 

with section 1011 was caused by the 1996 Department of Defense (DOD) 

Appropriations Act’s prohibition against spending any of the appropriated 

funds to return any Iowa class battleships to the NVR or to retain the 

logistical support necessary to support such a battleship in active service. 

There was also a lack of action on the Navy’s part to reinstate the 

battleships on the NVR after the funding prohibition expired. However, the 

Navy had suspended demilitarization and stopped the disposal of parts 

before section 1011 was enacted. 

According to the Navy, as originally drafted, section 1011 would have 

required the Navy to list the two battleships that were in the “best” 

condition on the NVR. These were the U.S.S. Missouri and the

U.S.S. Wisconsin. However, since the U.S.S. Missouri was in the process 

of being donated, the requirement was changed from “best” to “good” 

condition in the final bill. The Navy’s Board of Inspection and Surveys had 

declared all four of the remaining Iowa class battleships fit for further 

service at the time of their last decommissioning. Since the Navy 

considered all four battleships to be in good condition, it placed the

U.S.S. New Jersey and the U.S.S. Wisconsin on the NVR and cleared the 

way for donation of the U.S.S. Missouri. 

Since February 1998, the Navy has listed these two battleships

(U.S.S. Wisconsin and U.S.S. New Jersey) on the NVR in mobilization 

category B, the highest readiness category for inactive ships that can be 
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recalled to active service in an emergency. Before section 1011 was 

enacted, the Navy had begun to demilitarize the U.S.S. New Jersey by 

welding down the training mechanisms of its 16-inch guns. Despite this 

action, the Navy selected the U.S.S. New Jersey over the U.S.S. Iowa, 

which had one of its 16-inch gun turrets rendered inoperable, due to an 

earlier explosion1

 because repair cost estimates for the latter were greater. 

In the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

1999, Congress directed the Navy to substitute the U.S.S. Iowa for the

U.S.S. New Jersey on the NVR and to arrange for its donation. The Navy 

made this change in January 1999. Officials from the Navy Inactive Fleet 

said the three battleships are in good material condition and the two listed 

on the NVR are being maintained in the highest readiness category for 

inactive ships. Our visual inspection of these three ships and our review of 

documentation on the ships’ condition confirm the Navy’s statement.

Necessary Logistic 

Support Being 

Retained 

The Navy is complying with the section 1011 requirement to retain the 

existing logistical support necessary to keep at least two operational Iowa 

class battleships in active service, including technical manuals, repair and 

replacement parts, and ordnance. The Navy estimates that it costs about 

$600,000 annually to maintain three battleships in the inactive fleet and 

about $440,000 per year to store and maintain the 16-inch ammunition and 

propellant powder. The Navy did not provide an estimate for sustaining the 

other parts of the battleship logistic support structure.

The Navy is storing most of the battleship repair parts inventory in the 

climate-controlled interiors of the U.S.S. New Jersey and the

U.S.S. Wisconsin. Technical manuals for the battleships have also been 

consolidated on these two ships. Additional spare and replacement parts 

are stored primarily at naval facilities at Bell, California; Bremerton, 

Washington; and Crane, Indiana. According to the Navy, the current 

inventory of unique and other spare parts is adequate to keep two 

battleships in active service for a number of years. If needed, additional 

battleship-unique parts could be manufactured, or made available by 

cannibalizing ships that have been donated, as was the practice when the 

Navy reactivated the Iowa class ships in the 1980s. 

1

See Issues Arising From an Explosion Aboard the Battleship Iowa (GAO/NSIAD-91-4, Jan. 29, 1991).
B- 280495

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There was some concern about the availability of very large “hammerhead” 

cranes needed for future battleship repair work (e.g., repair of the damaged 

turret on the U.S.S. Iowa). We verified with Navy officials that the naval 

shipyards at Norfolk, Virginia, and Bremerton, Washington, have cranes 

that are large and powerful enough to service battleships.

The Navy is currently maintaining 26 usable 16-inch gun barrel spares at 

Hawthorne, Nevada, and Dahlgren and Portsmouth, Virginia. About 15,000 

rounds of usable 16-inch gun ammunition and associated propellant 

charges are stored at the Army Ammunition Plant, McAlester, Oklahoma, 

the Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA), Crane, Indiana, and the 

Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada. CAAA still maintains a 16-inch 

ammunition repair and renovation capability and operable propellant 

mixing and stacking machinery. Thus, according to CAAA officials, 

production of 16-inch projectile bodies could be restarted in only a few 

months, at an estimated cost of $7,000 per projectile. Final assembly of the 

16-inch projectiles would be performed at the Army Ammunition Plant in 

McAlester, Oklahoma. Officials there said that the explosive pressing and 

fuse installation assembly line could be restarted within a year, at an 

estimated average cost of $3,000 per projectile, and that they would also 

need about $600,000 to restore and modernize the production facility.

The Navy has estimated the cost of maintaining battleships in the inactive 

fleet at about $200,000 per ship, per year, which excludes the cost of 

sustaining the battleship logistics support structure. Because the ships are 

maintained under dehumidification and special rust protection, 

maintenance of parts on board costs nothing extra. According to CAAA 

officials, DOD’s cost to store and maintain the 16-inch ammunition and 

propellant powder there is about $294,000 per year. Annual storage costs 

to DOD for 16-inch ammunition and propellant at the Hawthorne Army 

Depot and the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant are about $121,000 and 

$26,000, respectively.

Navy Plans to Keep 

Battleships on the 

Register

Section 1011 required the Navy to list and keep two battleships on the NVR 

until the Secretary of the Navy certified that the Navy has within the fleet 

an operational surface fire support capability that equals or exceeds the 

fire support capability that the Iowa class battleships would be able to 

provide for Marine Corps amphibious assaults and operations ashore. With 

the retirement of the battleships, the Navy’s existing surface fire support 

capabilities are limited to 5-inch/54 caliber guns and munitions on cruisers 
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and destroyers. These munitions, however, lack the range, accuracy, and 

lethality the Marine Corps says it needs for naval fire support. 

To address this deficiency, the Navy initiated a near- and long-term program 

to develop NSFS capabilities. The near-term phase of the program consists 

of developing a modified 5-inch/62 caliber gun and precision guided 

munitions with a 41-63 nautical mile range and a land attack missile for the 

current classes of destroyers and cruisers. The Navy and the Marine Corps 

stated that they need naval gunfire support to these ranges to meet current 

requirements. The gun and precision guided munition are expected to 

reach operational capability2 in fiscal year 2002. The Navy expects the 

Land Attack Standard Missile to reach operational capability in fiscal year 

2003. The long-term phase consists of developing more lethal and longer 

range guns, projectiles, and missiles. 

Navy officials state that they plan to remove the battleships from the NVR 

as soon as they can certify that the performance of the gun, projectiles, and 

missiles being developed equals or exceeds that of the battleships. Navy 

officials believe their development programs will achieve operational 

capabilities between fiscal year 2003 and 2008 and then they will be able to 

make the required certification.

Agency Comments In written comments, DOD concurred with a draft of this report

(see app. I). DOD also provided technical clarifications that we 

incorporated as appropriate.

Scope and 

Methodology

To determine the extent of the Navy’s compliance with the requirements of 

section 1011 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996, 

we: 

• interviewed officials and obtained documentation from the Office of the 

Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, the Naval Sea Systems 

Command, and its subordinate activities;

• inspected the U.S.S. Iowa, the U.S.S. New Jersey, and the

U.S.S. Wisconsin and discussed their condition with officials from the 

2Initial operational capability is the first attainment of the capability to employ effectively a weapon, item of 

equipment, or system of approved specific characteristics with the appropriate number, type, and mix of trained 

and equipped personnel necessary to operate, maintain, and support the system.
B- 280495

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Headquarters, Navy Inactive Fleet, and subordinate maintenance 

activities in Bremerton, Washington, Newport, Rhode Island, 

Portsmouth, Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;

• reviewed documentation regarding the condition of the battleships from 

the Office of the Secretary of the Navy; and

• viewed and received briefings and documentation on 16-inch 

ammunition production facilities and ammunition, propellant, and parts 

storage facilities at NSWC Crane; ammunition and spare gun barrels 

stored at the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant; and spare gun barrels 

located at Dahlgren, and Norfolk, Virginia.

We conducted our review from July 1998 through December 1998 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

We are also sending copies of this report to Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman, 

and Senator Robert C. Byrd, Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee 

on Appropriations; Representative C. W. Bill Young, Chairman, and 

Representative David R. Obey, Ranking Minority Member, House 

Committee on Appropriations. We are also sending copies of this report to 

the Honorable William Cohen, Secretary of Defense; the Honorable Richard 

Danzig, Secretary of the Navy; the Honorable William J. Lynn, Under 

Secretary of Defense (Comptroller); and the Honorable Jacob Lew, 

Director, Office of Management and Budget. Copies will also be made 

available to others upon request.

Please contact me at (202) 512-4841 if you have any questions about this 

report. The major contributors to this report are listed in appendix II.

James F. Wiggins

Associate Director

Defense Acquisitions Issues
Page 9 GAO/NSIAD-99-62 Force Structure

Appendix I

Comments From the Secretary of Defense ApenIxdi
Page 10 GAO/NSIAD-99-62 Force Structure

Appendix II

Major Contributors to This Report ApenxIdi

National Security and 

International Affairs 

Division, Washington, 

D.C.

Martha J. Dey

Jack G. Perrigo, Jr.

Richard J. Price

Office of General 

Counsel, Washington, 

D.C.

Stephanie J. May

Norfolk Field Office Anton G. Blieberger

(707369) Lert
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