The authors conducted hour-long interviews with 77 current and retired Navy officers, offering them anonymity to identify issues they wouldn't feel comfortable raising in the chain of command. One of the key issues raised by the officers interviewed for the report was a concern that Navy leaders spend more time focusing on diversity training than on developing warfighting capacity and key operational skills. One junior surface warfare officer, still on active duty, confessed: 'I don't think that the [surface community] see themselves as people who are engaged in a fight.' 'These are guys that are totally zero-risk,' one former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense who served as a surface warfare officer said of the surface warfare community. Report cites underinvestment in officer training and poorly resourced ship maintenance programTwo related issued raised by the report are poorly funded and constantly shifting officer training programs, and under-resourced ship maintenance.

Source: Daily Mail July 13, 2021 15:00 UTC