# Navy chief expects years of destroyer maintenance recovery, Breaking Defense reports Navy leaders warn returning destroyers could strain shipyard capacity, leading to deferred maintenance, bare-minimum repair packages or skipped modernization, Breaking Defense reports. Published 2026-10-28 by TGOs. Canonical: https://tgos.io/news/2026/10/28/navy-chief-expects-years-of-destroyer-maintenance-recovery-breaking/ The Navy faces years of maintenance recovery as ships return from extended deployments, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said Monday at the United States Navy Memorial, Breaking Defense reported.[1] He warned that maintenance availabilities would snowball, particularly for destroyers, as some carriers and surface ships return from more than 300 days at sea.[1] Caudle said the work involves hundreds of availabilities and would require hundreds of millions of dollars.[1] The Navy is weighing how to prioritize repairs, shorten some timelines and defer larger projects without falling further behind schedule.[1] Private shipyards usually oversee repairs for the Navy’s surface fleet, including destroyers and cruisers.[1] Congressional Budget Office senior analyst for naval forces and weapons Eric Labs told Breaking Defense that some private maintenance yards have voiced concerns about a lack of work at present.[1] He said those yards would face a heavy workload once destroyers return, creating planning and workforce challenges for industry and the Navy.[1] Norfolk Naval Shipyard commander Rear Adm. Kavon Hakimzadeh told a September Center for Maritime Strategy roundtable that returning destroyers face capacity choke points.[1] He suspected they would all need the same dry dock, requiring the Navy to sequence their maintenance.[1] ## Why it matters Breaking Defense reported that Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby warned that the industrial base could not absorb the returning work, so the Navy would have to sequence it.[1] He spoke at an Oct. 8 National Commission on the Future of the Navy hearing.[1] He said he would defer maintenance or reduce repair packages to the bare minimum and skip modernization.[1] ## Sources 1. Breaking Defense: Navy faces 'years-long' maintenance crunch amid record-breaking, extended deployments