The Navy’s new hovercraft should be mission ready by fall after years of delays, according to the watchdog.

The Navy’s new hovercraft will be ready to deploy and conduct missions in September as the service works to replace its aging landing craft fleet, according to a recent federal watchdog report.

Known as the Ship-to-Shore Connector, the service’s upgraded version of the air-cushioned landing craft has been four years behind schedule due to developmental testing and technical problems, most recently related to propeller blades. cracked propellers and premature gearbox wear, the government said. The Accountability Office said last week in its annual assessment of the weapons system.

However, further issues with these components are not expected and the hovercraft is expected to complete its initial phase of operational testing and evaluation by the end of June, putting the craft on track to be ready for deployment. on mission by fall, the GAO said.

Manufactured by Rhode Island-based Textron Inc., the new hovercraft is larger, faster and more efficient than its predecessor, which has been used since the early 1980s to transport Marines and their equipment from amphibious ships to the shoreline during combat or disaster relief efforts. . The oldest air-cushioned landing craft are reaching the end of their service life, with 68 of them having already been extended by a decade, from 20 to 30 years.

Program officials have previously said that initial operational capability — or when the new craft can deploy, conduct missions and be maintained by a unit — would be reached when six of them are delivered to the fleet.

Nine new ships have been delivered to the Navy since the replacement program began in 2009, including four in 2023. Although this was the first time in the program’s history that four connector ships were delivered within 12 months , the GAO report states that several of the ships took five years to complete and there were “major production quality problems.”

Two craft delivered in 2023 had the smallest number of deficiencies the program has detected during testing, although one had a “serious deficiency.”

“Specifically, repairs to welds on the hull bottom failed during testing, allowing water to enter the hull, and additional weld defects were discovered after acceptance testing,” the statement said. report.

Program officials said the welding defects were corrected and the Navy accepted the hovercraft in November 2023.

The Navy’s plan is to replace all 72 ships in its hovercraft fleet. Among them, 24 boats are under contract, including the nine which have been delivered.

The GAO report noted delays in reaching the program’s operational status since 2020. Some hulls had issues with leaks in the propeller lubricating oil system, failure of the propeller de-icing thruster shroud gear, abrasions on the bow ramp cables, as well as on the propeller blade. erosion and air leaks in the craft’s cushioned blades, delaying testing and delivery. These issues have been fixed and have not impacted the delivery of subsequent cases.

The report raised concerns about the stability of the production line due to a lack of funding.

The program’s original schedule called for five hovercraft to be purchased each fiscal year. While the contractor has demonstrated it can provide four craft per year, the service is slowing its purchases for fiscal years 2025-28, accepting only two craft per year, according to the Navy’s budget estimate for the fiscal year. 2024.

The decision to slow purchases was attributed to the current level of funding planned for fiscal years 2025 through 2028, according to the GAO.

“The program views this lower level of craft purchasing as a cost risk. He indicated that to maintain the contractor’s production line and increase cost savings in future procurement (landing craft), he would need to increase the number of craft purchased each year, but that he cannot not do so at the current level of planned funding,” the States report.

The first cost estimate for the program published in 2012 was $5.3 billion, with a unit cost of $73 million per vessel. According to the report, the program is expected to cost $6.5 billion by 2023, or $90 million per ship.

In the Navy’s fiscal 2025 budget, the service requested a $17,000 increase for its Amphibious Tactical Support Unit program to support sustainment of aging landing craft beyond their service life of expected life, citing a delay in the delivery of the new boats.