Someone had to use a bad term...
VADM Buskirk went through some of the Navy's priorities about sequestration here:
http://blog.usni.org/2013/03/23/cnp-operationalizes-sequestrationcr
My thoughts:
- No huge surprise about STA-21. We're going to see more cuts to enlisted-to-officer programs, simply because the Navy can't keep enlisted in long enough to fill it's critical billets (department head and XO jobs) without most of them retiring. NETC has been doing this for a while now already.
- Cyber training is interesting. The Navy needs a better test to evaluate what cyber skills people have right now. That will help them better recruit people that are naturally talented, so they won't need as much training.
The Navy could save all sorts of dollars on a number of initiatives:
- Why don't we have electronically routed paperwork? Seriously, it's 2013. How many man-hours/paper costs could we save?
- Why in the hell are we still using NAVFIT-98a for FITREPs/EVALs? Do we not have an easier program that wouldn't require folks printing multiple copies every EVAL cycle?
- We're upping bonuses for all sorts of folks, except that we have record retention.
- The Navy is sticking with TA, but we have no screening for degrees for either enlisted or officers. Hate to say it, but why can someone get a music degree and commission as a Naval Officer, when they will likely fill a technical job their first tour as a DIVO on a ship, submarine, or aircraft?
We still have a long way to go...
