...and we don't know now because?

First; BZ for VADM Curtis - and I hope he picks the most detailed, grumpy, 30-year-point terminal CAPT SWOs who don't owe no'un nut'un and Old-School Master Chiefs to do it.

The head of the Navy’s surface forces has ordered technical inspections of dozens of warships to see “exactly what their lifespan is” through assessments of their material readiness.

First up are Harper’s Ferry and Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships, said Vice Adm. D.C. Curtis, and followed by Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

The Navy’s steam-powered gators are getting old, Curtis told Navy Times. “We may think a ship is 14 years old,” he said, but with a high operational tempo, “is it really 17 years old?”

It begs the question though, why do we have no confidence in the systems and personnel we now have in place to get this answer, and who is going to be held accountable for that lack of confidence?

Over the last year, VADM Curtis has started a turn back in a direction that gets confident nods from here -

Curtis has spent the last year working to get SurFor “back to basics,” after a series of embarrassments in early 2008 that included failed inspections for two Aegis warships and a disappointing visit by Curtis to the San Diego waterfront. Since then he has increased the amount of live-fire training for surface sailors; reinstituted waterfront instruction for freshly minted surface warfare officers; and called for computer instruction to give way to more hands-on training.

I won't say that VADM Curtis is a CDR Salamander reader - but we seem to both be a big fan of Vince Lombardi.

He plans to create a “surface ship life-cycle maintenance activity” to look at readiness across the fleet.

“We want to make sure our ships are ready to go to the playoffs,” Curtis said, comparing them to the ongoing NFL postseason, “that they’re blocking and tackling correctly.”

Yes - now let's all cross our fingers and hope what happened to the P-3s doesn't happen to the LSD and DDG.

Hat tip Mike.