USN & RAN Submarine Crew Shortages

The US Navy’s submarine arm is suffering a shortage of SSNs, now and into the 2030s. But, in any case there is a shortage of submariners to man them.

StrategyPage reports :

“Attrition: USN Personnel Shortage

January 20, 2024: The US Navy, like most other navies, is suffering from a shortage of new personnel, causing a problem with providing ships with enough sailors. It is increasingly common for warships to be stuck in port because there is no crew available… In addition, the [USN] was forced to pay close attention to smaller crew sizes in one class of ships: submarines. While modern subs are four times the size of their World War II counterparts [eg. the USN’s Balao-class], and full of much more equipment, crew size has only doubled.

…These crew shortages began with submarines, which required crews to live and work in a confined space for weeks or months at a time. The crew shortage led to more navies with submarines that could not go to sea because no crews were available [eg. the RAN which in the 1990s-early 2000s only had enough submariners to man 2 or 3 submarines maximum]. Most of the navies suffering from this problem belonged to nations with smaller populations [like Australia]…”