Senate Panel Questions Navy Submarine Build Rate, FY2025 Virgina-class Buy
USNI News
By John Grady
May 3, 2024
The Senate Armed Services seapower subcommittee chair said the Navy needed to “run fast” to catch up on delays to the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program and also meet the U.S. commitment of delivering at least three Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s to Australia.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) questioned Navy leaders how the service would make up the schedule shortfalls of the Columbia and Virginia programs while only requesting one Virginia-class submarine in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
Nickolas Guertin, assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, testified the Navy would reach its goal of receiving two Virginia-class submarines and a Columbia class per year by 2028 and 2.3 Virginia-class boats per year by 2032 if 10,000 more skilled tradesmen, engineers and logisticians were put in place.
He added that even though the request was for one Virginia-class submarine this year, there were calls in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget for long-lead items for others to be built in the future.
“We can’t delay this anymore,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, referring to national security requirements to modernize the nuclear triad and Washington’s commitment to the Australia-United Kingdom-United States [AUKUS] agreement on submarine production and high-technology exchanges. He also noted the delays affect not only General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding but also suppliers to the two shipyards and their employees.
Guertin said the problem of having a skilled workforce in place “at the waterfront,” in engineering, logistics and with the suppliers “is pervasive and broad.” He added there has been some improvement in hiring numbers thanks to government and industry incentives.
At least one senator noted television ads during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament pointing to careers in shipbuilding as an example of reaching out to a broader population who may be interested in a well-paying career.
In answer to an earlier question, Guertin said the loss of skilled welders, pipefitters and electricians following the COVID-19 pandemic led to “a greener workforce” in which “quality wasn’t as high” and manufacturing was slower. He added the funds the Navy has committed to help train these workers and improve shipyard capacity has to be “met by industry.”
The trick will be getting the new workers past the three-year employment mark, once they have the skills needed and are willing to continue working in shipbuilding and maintenance, Guertin said.
By “staying behind schedule, they’re not making a profit.”
Guertin said the recent addition of $3.3 billion as part of a supplemental spending bill for the submarine industrial base is paying off in yard modernization and a growing workforce.
Guertin told the committee the Navy has encouraged the shipyards to spread out their manufacturing base to inland states such as Michigan to build ships’ decks or to assemble modules that could be fitted onto hulls being built on the coasts.
Spreading the work out to skilled labor forces away from the concentrated maritime industries along the coasts could be another way to reduce delays in new ship delivery, he added.
On the three-year delays in frigate construction at Fincantieri’s Marinette Marine Wisconsin yard, Guertin said, “we could have kept a better eye on this ship.” In response to the situation there, “we have moved hard into that problem … to get into a better place.”
USNI News reported Naval Sea Systems Command has sent teams to work with the yard and its subcontractors on the Constellation-class design, which is expected to be completed by October or possibly December.
Guertin and Vice Adm. James Pitts, vice chief for warfighting and capabilities (OPNAV N9), told the panel other steps to improve ship delivery and reduce repair time could start with Del Toro’s call for a national maritime statecraft strategy involving the Navy, the Departments of Transportation and Commerce and shipbuilders to build capacity for construction and repair.
“That would be a good place to start,” Guertin added.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) took the Navy to task for cutting its request for directed-energy research and development from $181 million to $55 million, which he said made no sense. “Budgets are policy,” he said when Guertin mentioned experiments the Navy was making in the field.
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