80% readiness requires 21st-century tools

The Navy awarded Gecko Robotics a five-year, $71 million contract to deploy AI and robotic inspection technologies across the fleet to improve material readiness. The initiative will begin with 18 ships in the Pacific Fleet, where operational demand is highest, and aims to reduce maintenance delays by shifting from reactive repairs to predictive maintenance. Previous robotic evaluations have eliminated over three months of potential maintenance delay on individual ships, demonstrating that faster, more accurate inspections can improve crew scheduling and morale. The Navy is targeting 80% fleet readiness by 2027, contingent on modernizing inspection and maintenance processes rather than simply demanding greater effort from Sailors and shipyard workers.