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It was shocking to learn early last year that two of the Navy’s front-line and most advanced warships — the cruiser Chosin and destroyer Stout — had both flunked inspections within weeks of each other.

Turns out that was just the beginning: Four more ships were also deemed “unfit” in 2008, including another destroyer, two dock landing ships and an attack submarine.

The sorry condition of the fleet is only coming into view thanks to an internal Navy report that Navy officials didn’t want to see the light of day.

That report, obtained by Navy Times, summarizes all of last year’s material inspections.

Navy officials decided last year, after Navy Times reported on the Chosin and Stout inspections, that henceforth all inspections carried out by the Board of Inspection and Survey would be classified.

The reason, said a spokesman for Fleet Forces Command: The Navy didn’t want its internal findings to be hijacked by adversaries to find weaknesses in the fleet.

Top officials have also promised in public forums that they’re serious about fixing the problems and bringing the fleet “back to basics.”

Fixing problems requires transparency and accountability. And while secrecy may protect American ships from adversaries, it could well prove unable to protect those ships from faulty leadership.

Those sections that point not to failures of a crew or command, but rather to the design of a class of ships, for example, can be redacted from these reports. But to classify the reports in their entirety is wrong.

American warships don’t belong to the Navy; they belong to the people, who have every right to know the material condition of these vital national assets. Hiding the surveys in their entirety behind a veil of secrecy doesn’t protect anyone but the Navy leadership, which is responsible — and must be held accountable — for the condition of the fleet.