Shipyard Improvement Plan
Assuming it comes to fruition – not a safe assumption with the Navy - , here’s some genuine good news about our four publicly owned naval shipyards. You’ll recall that our shipyards have lost the capability to build ships and are in, literally, crumbling condition (see, “Government Run Shipyards”).
Now, NavSea, prodded by Congress, has produced a plan to rebuild the shipyards. (1, 2) The 20 year plan (right there is reason for skepticism since no 20 plan is ever carried to fruition) proposed spending $21B to revitalize the yards, concentrating on three main aspects.
- Dry Dock recapitalization - As the Executive Summary of NavSea’s plan notes, drydock investment is needed in order to service the Ford and Virginia class vessels.
- Facility layout and optimization - Facility layout at the yards needs extensive modification. NavSea plans to resize, reconfigure, and relocate facilities to optimize work flow.
- Capital equipment modernization - NavSea plans to reinvest in capital equipment that is beyond its service life, obsolete, and no longer supported by the original manufacturer.
This is good news on its own but even better is that the Navy seems to have a logical approach to the project.
“We’re not going to get $21 billion in one year to go do this, nor could we execute that amount of money, so … we’ll go do that work in a way that allows us to get the most important work done as quickly as we can to get the biggest return on investment to the taxpayer, and then also takes into account work that’s ongoing in the yard.”
The Navy is currently in the process of working with a civil engineering firm to draw out what the final end state will look like at each of the four public shipyards, and will then determine how to plan the work around one-year budget cycles, Naval Sea Systems Command commander Vice Adm. Tom Moore told USNI News. (1)
While I noted at the outset that the length of the plan, 20 years, is cause enough to be skeptical about its success, the Navy even seems to be aware of this aspect!
“That’s going to be the challenge, for sure, is to keep people interested over a 20-year period. For anything that’s a challenge. I think the selling point to everybody has been … if you want to get to a force of 355 (ships) and you want to be more productive going forward, this is a key component of it,” Moore
The Navy has correctly identified the monumentally obvious connection between fleet size and shipyard maintenance facilities!
 |
| Portsmouth Shipyard |
Another worrisome aspect of this project is the Navy’s well known, well demonstrated fixation on advanced technology at the expense of actual usefulness. In the article, Moore
Technology fixation aside, NavSea’s plan is a good one and the Navy seems to have a solid grasp on how to execute it. If the funding can be maintained, $1B each year ought to yield substantial improvements to the yards and, ultimately, to the state of the fleet. ComNavOps gives this project his wholehearted approval and support.
While I’m highly critical of Navy leadership for allowing the shipyards to deteriorate to the horrific point they have, I’ll give the Navy full credit for finally recognizing the problem and doing something meaningful about it. I also have to give Congress full credit for their oversight and prodding without which the project would likely not exist. This is what Congress is supposed to do – well done!
I’ll attempt to revisit this from time to time and track the progress.
The Executive Summary of NavSea’s plan is available on-line (2).
___________________________________
(1)USNI News, “NAVSEA Looking for Early Wins as it Kicks Off 20-Year Yard Modernization”, Megan Eckstein, 5-Sep-2018 ,
Belum ada Komentar untuk "Shipyard Improvement Plan"
Posting Komentar