"GAO reviewed six ships valued at $6.3 billion that had completed the post-delivery period, and found they were provided to the fleet with varying degrees of incomplete work and quality problems," the report stated on Thursday.
Although the Navy resolved many of the defects by the end of the post-delivery period, as the table below shows, quality problems persisted and work was incomplete when the selected ships were turned over to the operational fleet, the GAO said.
"Fleet officials reported varying levels of concern with the overall quality and completeness of the ships, such as with unreliable equipment or a need for more intense maintenance than expected," the report said.
The Navy’s ship delivery policy does not facilitate a process that provides complete and quality ships to the fleet and practices do not comport with policy, the GAO warned.