10 U.S.C. § 8674 — Examination of vessels; striking of vessels from Naval Vessel Register

(a) Boards of Officers To Examine Naval Vessels — (1) The Secretary of the Navy must set up boards of naval officers to examine naval vessels — including unfinished ones — and recommend which vessels, if any, should be struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Each vessel should be examined at least once every three years, if that's practical. (2)(A) Except as noted in (B), any vessel examined on or after January 1, 2020 must be examined with as little advance notice to the crew as possible. (B) That rule does not apply to a vessel going through required trials before it joins the fleet.

(b) Actions by Board — A board must give the Secretary its written recommendations on which examined vessels, if any, should be struck from the Register.

(c) Action by Secretary — If the Secretary agrees with the board's recommendation to strike a vessel, the Secretary must strike that vessel's name from the Register.

(d) Annual Report — (1) By March 1 each year, the board must brief Congress's defense committees and submit a report covering: (A) an overall summary of how ready Navy ships are compared to material readiness standards; (B) the number and types of vessels inspected the previous fiscal year; and (C) for in-service vessels, five-year trends in material readiness by area inspected. (2) Each report must be submitted both in classified form and in an unclassified form that can be released to the public without further edits.