"How long is a tour of duty in the Navy?" Topic

It came up in discussion today. What is an average tour of duty in the U.S. Navy? Army? Marines? Is it different for the submarine crews? Other nations?

If you are talking enlistments, it's usually a 4 year enlistment, with 4 years obligation in the IRR (Individual Inactive Reserves). Rule of thumb, though any combination of active duty, reserve duty, and IRR equaling 8 years total

Officers serve at the convenience of Congress, so contractual obligations are a bit different and subject to different things that effect length of service..

How long are crew or officers out on a ship in the ocean?

The average deployment aboard a surface ship is 180 days, of course subject to national and international circumstances.

Officers serve at the convenience of the President. None of my commissioning paperwork ever mentioned Congress. I double checked my commission as a Captain of Marines. The President is mentioned, superior officers…..no congress.

My oath mentions the Constitution, again not congress. Congress is not in the chain of command. they have oversight, the purse strings and approval for flag rank (much like approval for judges appointed by the president).

And the Constitution trumps the President in line of allegience. At least the last time renewed my oath when promoted to Captain.

Fast attack submarines usually deploy for 6 months.

8-9 month deployments are becoming far more common for the surface fleet, but this has not moved over into the submarine force (yet).

Ballistic Missile submarines work on a 110-120 day cycle with a 20-30 day refit period followed by an 80-90 day patrol.

Hope this helps.

petrex, do not confuse how long they are out on deployment with how long they are assigned to a (or the) ship.

While surface ship deployments can vary due to situations that develop while deployed, the standard is, as mentioned, 6 months.

For the Navy, assignment to a particular ship can sometimes vary with the rating, but more often for enlisted last 3-4 years. My uncle was a Machinist for four years in the Navy and had a total of two months assigned to a ship, so it CAN vary.

For Marines, deployment of aviation units aboard an aircraft carrier, or MEU's aboard amphibs happens just before heading out to sea for the deployment , though joint training of key personnel beforehand occurs for both branches (Navy & Marines) in months leading up to the ships deployment so they are all "up to speed" with how one another does their business.

Enlistments vary in time, as do tours/deployments. You can also extend. Sometimes they ask if you want out early.

As mentioned above, initial enlistments are 4 years. There is some talk of bringing back 2 or 3 year initial enlistments.
For officers, there is no enlistment period but there is a inital committment period of 4 to 5 years with another 4 to 5 year obligation to the individual ready reserve (sort of an "on call" status).
While officers serve the President, Congress approves the promotion lists and general/flag officer assignments.

Although there has been a wide variety in tour lengths the past 11 years, the Services are moving to standardize them.
Currently the standard is moving towards 9 months for the Army and the Marines. SOF is moving towards a standard 6 month deployment. The USAF had a standard of 4 to 6 months for a deployment and Alex757 explained hte navy's current deployment plan.

Of course, individual augmentees serve a different amount of time, some units get curtailed or extended, and what may be a deployment location for one person/unit, is a permanent station for another. Some examples include Bahrain and Kuwait.

All terms are maleble based on need. As an officer I had a 2.5 year initial active term followed by inactive reserve….though the first four years were supposed to be active reserve till budgets got cut.

So experiences vary.

Used to be 3 years for the Canadian Armed Forces.

Thanks, folks. That was interesting. Such variability, I expected more standardization in the services. It sounds like that may be in the works.

British Royal Navy, Enlisted sign on for 22 years, with option to leave at a years notice after 4.5 years service. Officers sign on for an initial term of 8 years.

Ratings and Officers are now assigned to a squadron of ships for life.

Patrols/depoloyemtns for ships and submarines are typically 6 months, but increasingly are planned back to back, with a short break in between for 2 sets of 2 weeks leave for 50% of the crew each time…

The more sailors leave early becuase of increased deployments, the more deployments increase, so the more sailors leave, so the deployments increase, so ….

I can also add that for USMC Officers, it is basically, "up-or-out," in their first four years.

Officially they serve at the pleasure of Congress, but if they do not get selected for Captain (O-3) by the four year mark, they are sent packing.

How long are crew or officers out on a ship in the ocean?

~21-45 days between port calls, but 6-9 months away from home port.

And how long someone is assigned to a ship is a very different thing than how long a ship is at sea.

You typically spend 3 years assigned to a ship before you are re-assigned to shore duty, typically spend 3 years ashore, and then spend another 3 years at sea.

@peterx: in the US Navy, individual sea/shore rotations vary by rate (ie, by job). As an admin weenie, my first sea tour was actually supposed to be 4 years, then a 3 year shore rotation, and then 3/3 sea/shore after that. Other rates had different rotations.

You would never spend less than 2 years attached to a seagoing command, so if you volunteered to transfer to a new ship you'd spend close to 2 years on the USS Florida, and then spend 2 years on the USS Kentucky (for example).

My first ship, USS Bradley, spent 21 days as its max underway time between ports, either on a WestPac or while in SoCal waters. (4+ years on board)
Number two, USS David R Ray, did the same. (2.5 years on board)
Number three, USS Russell, had a 31 day stint off of Pakistan watching missile tests. (4 years on board).
Number four was 102 days at sea, but that was during the war of 2003…and it was USS Kitty Hawk. (Just less than 2 years on board).

A WestPac is usally 6 months from Conus ships. But like I said, 21 days was the longest (except 31/102) that we would be out. Socal ships would usually hit Pearl on the way out, then either Hong Kong or Singapore, then Thailand. And then to Bahrain. Usually 1-2 weeks out in the "pool" until it was time to leave. Russell went home via Australia twice. Ray went home via Hong Kong. Bradley stayed in the Pac while Carl Vinson and her battle group went to the pool. Kitty Hawk left Japan, went to the pool, then came back to Japan.

Hope this helps.