European crewing assumptions complicated American adaptation

FREMM is described as meeting NATO standards while reflecting European navies' smaller crews and recruitment constraints. Automation and ship-management systems help those crews perform damage control and operate the ship with fewer people. The larger US Navy approaches personnel and careers from a different institutional baseline. Equipment changes create a further adaptation problem: replacing European sensors with American radars changes the superstructure and supporting arrangements. A ship's structure supports its systems and allows them to work together, so changing several systems also changes their relationships. The original claim of 70 percent commonality is questioned on those grounds.