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Friday, October 11, 2024

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Navy Shipbuilding Crisis: Delays Plague Key Programs Amid Systemic Challenges

A Navy review has exposed large delays in nine significant shipbuilding programs, revealing systemic problems that are constraining industrial base production. The review, ordered by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, focused on “identifying root causes of delays and suggesting solutions that can help keep new builds on schedule.”

The findings are disquieting. The lead ship of the Columbia-class submarines is running between 12 to 16 months late; blocks four and five of the Virginia-class submarines are similarly behind schedule by 24 to 36 months. The third Ford-class aircraft carrier is running between 18 to 26 months behind schedule, and the lead ship of the Constellation-class frigates being built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin is 36 months behind schedule.

An April fact sheet on the review offered a few insights regarding the challenges, which included maturity in design, first-of-class issues, and workforce shortages. However, information is sensitive, and thus the report is still classified in its entirety, said Lt. Cmdr. Javan Rasnake, a spokesman for the Navy’s research, development, and acquisition division.

Del Toro attributed the delays in part to shipbuilders and suppliers working their way through “the lingering effects of post-pandemic conditions”, most notably on the Columbia-class submarine and Constellation-class frigate programs. But Aaron Karp, an International Security Expert from Old Dominion University, claimed it to be still an incomplete explanation and missing the realities of the present day.

Karp explained that shipbuilding delays are almost always caused by funding tensions among lawmakers and manufacturers’ reluctance to make long-term investments. He said, “There is some long-term investment that needs to be done for this kind of work, big capital stuff. If you want to sustain higher rate production, it just has to be done.”

The review also pointed to how inconsistent demand signals have hit the supply chain. Chris Kastner, president and CEO of the HII-parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, highlighted the importance of advance procurement to keep shipbuilding on schedule. “Part of the reason we are in the fix that we are in is that the supply chain got unhealthy coming through the years when they were ordering fewer ships,” Kastner said.

In contrast, the Navy 2025 budget requests reductions in Virginia-class submarines and future Ford-class carriers to free some of the workload in the shipyards. However, Bryan Clark, a defense analyst with the Hudson Institute, warned that such modifications to the program will disturb the industrial supply chain by lowering demand and hence will make it difficult for the industry to prepare and invest in infrastructure and its workforce.

“Inability to plan just adds to our workforce issues,” Clark said. “We are in a pretty tight labor environment. Working in a lot of these industries is not as easy as an office job or retail job, and in a lot of cases the industry jobs don’t pay that much more than the retail or the office job.”

Since 2020, HII has invested $450 million in training its workforce, with Newport News Shipbuilding seeking to hire 3,000 skilled trades workers this year and an additional 19,000 throughout the decade.

The review also found that first-in-class challenges and design maturity had slowed production. Clark speculated that the Navy overreached in trying to design a revolutionary vessel with advanced technologies, resulting in costly and time-consuming generational jumps.

The review serves as a “deafening wake-up call” for Navy shipbuilding officials, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said. Wittman and fellow Virginian Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., sharply criticized the Navy’s 2025 budget for taking money away from shipbuilding programs at a time when the defense industrial base is still trying to get back on a full schedule.

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