The Self Defense Test Ship, formerly USS Paul F. Foster, is shown against the backdrop of the Los Padres National Forest along California’s coast. (Eric Parsons/Navy)
The Navy doesn’t have a clear plan for replacing the capabilities of an aging destroyer used to test the effectiveness of ship defense systems needed to protect against threats like those recently faced by the fleet in the Middle East, a government watchdog agency says.
That failure in having a backup strategy for the Spruance-class vessel that is beset with structural and other problems puts the fleet at significant risk, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday that also addressed other Navy testing issues.
Recent Red Sea conflicts demonstrate “the Navy will need to continue to advance — and demonstrate through live testing — the operational capabilities of vessels’ self-defense systems in response to increasingly complex and evolving threats,” the report stated.
“A gap in, or outright loss of, test ship capability threatens the Navy’s ability to perform the operationally realistic testing needed to sufficiently evaluate ship self-defense systems,” the GAO said.
Navy forces in the Red Sea fighting Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen defended against more than 400 attack drones and missiles in the span of little more than a year after the group began launching attacks in November 2023 on military and commercial ships in the strategic waterway, a service official said in January 2025.
Since then, Houthi attacks on ships have decreased significantly but the group continues to be a threat.
The Navy pushed back on the GAO’s findings, saying that while it agreed a follow-on test ship is needed, potential substitutes had been identified. However, an availability gap could occur due to the current Arleigh Burke-class destroyer decommissioning schedule, the service said in response to the GAO report.
In October 2024, the Navy announced it would extend the service lives of 12 of Arleigh Burke destroyers that were set to begin retiring in 2028. The destroyers now will retire sometime between 2030 and 2036, Stars and Stripes reported at the time.
At issue is the former Paul F. Foster that has been in service for nearly 50 years and is the last of its class. Importantly, the testing vessel allows the service to demonstrate the performance of ship self-defense systems without putting a ship and its crew in significant danger.
But the poor condition of the test ship, including significant degradation of its hull, equipment and components, makes it uncertain the vessel will be operational through the end of the decade, the GAO found.
Irregular maintenance and a long-delayed drydock for repairs are exacerbating the issue, the report stated.
Without a clear plan for replacing the current test ship’s capability that considers how to mitigate the impact of any gap, the Navy risks accepting uncertainty about the adequacy of its operational testing, the GAO said.
“The lack of a plan also risks eroding the Navy’s ability to evaluate and understand the self-defense capabilities and limitations of its ships, thus passing significant risk to the fleet, the GAO said.
