It has been a record-breaking year for some U.S. Navy ships, although some sailors and families may have preferred to not be at the forefront of such feats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Various vessels have eclipsed one another in breaking Navy records for continuous days at sea this year, as the threat of COVID-19 has scuttled port calls and some deployments have stretched beyond the strictures of the Navy\u2019s Optimized Fleet Response Plan<\/a>, or O-FRP, schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O-FRP is supposed to provide for seven-month deployments, partly in the name of giving sailors and families more stable and predictable schedules, but several ships have deployed on nine-month cruises this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navy spokeswoman Lt. Emily Wilkin said in an email Wednesday that the pandemic has forced ships to quarantine before deployments and stay at sea between integrated training and deployment, so that the ship can maintain its \u201cCOVID-free bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, more than 190 ships have suffered COVID outbreaks of some level, although \u201caggressive early action\u201d has contained many of those outbreaks, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in a message<\/a> to the fleet last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Stout<\/a> returned to Norfolk after a nine-month deployment that began in mid-January and featured a \u201crecord-breaking 215 days at sea\u201d bookended by stops in Rota, Spain, to get fuel \u201cand fulfill other logistical requirements,\u201d a Navy release<\/a> on the homecoming states.<\/p>\n\n\n\t