Newport News included in Navy’s review of shipbuilding delays

A Navy investigation sheds light on major delays in shipbuilding, including at the Newport News Shipyard, but defense experts point to larger systemic problems limiting the industrial base’s production capacity.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro ordered a 45-day shipbuilding review this year with the aim of identifying the causes of shipbuilding challenges and recommending actions to keep new construction on schedule. A one-page fact sheet published in April found that several of the Navy’s major shipbuilding programs are one to three years behind schedule.

A second investigation will examine how to fix the delays, Del Toro said. The secretary referred to the need for a “whole of government effort” when he ordered the investigation in January.

The assessment found that the lead ship of the Columbia-class submarines is delayed by 12 to 16 months, blocks four and five of the Virginia-class submarines are delayed by 24 to 36 months, and the third aircraft carrier of the Ford class is delayed by 18 to 26 months. with Newport News Shipbuilding all playing a role in the construction. In addition, the lead ship of the Constellation-class frigates, which are being built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, is delayed by 36 months.

The fact sheet provided little insight into the cause of the delays, merely summarizing the key points of the challenges. Key issues included design maturity, first-class challenges, transition to production, and design staffing. Class issues included acquisition and contract strategy, supply chain, skilled workforce, and government employees. The full report is not available for public release due to sensitive information, said Lt. Cmdr. Javan Rasnake, spokesman for the Navy’s research, development and acquisition division.

Del Toro’s January order blamed the “lingering effects of post-pandemic conditions” on shipbuilders and suppliers, particularly the Columbia-class submarine and Constellation-class frigate programs.

“It’s a partial explanation. It’s not enough. And it does not address the situation in the year 2024,” said Aaron Karp, a lecturer at Old Dominion University who specializes in international security, armed conflict and arms proliferation.

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‘Supply chain fragility’

Delays in shipbuilding are caused by funding tensions among lawmakers or by manufacturers’ inability or unwillingness to make the long-term investments that higher production rates require, Karp said.

“It takes long-term investments for this kind of work – big capital investments,” Karp said. “If you want to maintain higher production, you just have to do that.”

This year, it took lawmakers multiple continuing resolutions, spread over nearly six months, to pass $1.2 trillion in spending in a package of bills, including defense spending. The delay froze defense dollars at last year’s levels.

Historically, Karp said, the problems with military procurement are nothing new.

“They’re actually getting into a conflict, and if one half of the conflict is in the hands of the U.S. Congress, that’s unpredictable,” Karp said.

President and CEO Chris Kastner of HII, the parent company of Newport News Shipbuilding, did not say whether the financing tensions contributed to delays but said early procurement is critical to keeping the shipbuilding industry on track. Early purchasing, he told reporters April 4 at the company’s Arlington office, allows suppliers to plan future orders and stay on schedule with delivering products. Kastner declined an interview last week.

“Part of the reason we’re in trouble is because the supply chain has become unhealthy over the years of ordering fewer ships,” Kastner said at the media event. “You’re moving to single-source, single-source suppliers and demand signals that weren’t consistent, and that created a vulnerability in the supply chain.”

The Navy’s 2025 budget request aims to limit purchases of Virginia-class submarines and future Ford-class carriers in an effort to ease the workload at shipyards. But such changes disrupt the industrial supply chain by lowering demand, ultimately making the Navy “not a very good customer,” said Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute.

“From an industry perspective, you can’t really prepare. You can’t buy. You cannot hire employees. You can’t build infrastructure,” Clark said. “You can’t set up your production lines in advance because you can’t depend on the schedule in which the government will buy your products.”

The Navy budget plans to purchase one Virginia-class submarine, a break from the service’s steady twice-a-year demand signal. Navy officials claim the industrial base needs to build 2.33 attack boats a year so the US can sell Virginia-class submarines to Australia as part of a trilateral deal. The submarine industrial base currently builds 1.3 attack boats per year, despite the fact that the Navy has purchased two Virginia-class submarines per year since fiscal year 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service.