Features

February 1, 2012  

Sea Swap redux

TO THE NAVY for revisiting Sea Swap for cruisers and destroyers.

The last time the surface fleet’s leaders tried rotating crews on its marquee warships, they botched it up, largely because they were trying to shrink the size of the crews at the same time. It’s tough enough to build an effective team of sailors whose ship is not their own for six months out of every 12, let alone when they are struggling to do more with less. But faced with an ever-shrinking fleet, Adm. Jon Greenert, the new CNO, is right to give the concept another whirl. One can only hope that this time they apply the lessons that have yielded success aboard missile subs and minehunters, as well as those learned through failure the last time round.