The Navy on Tuesday confirmed year-plus delays in just about every major shipbuilding program, including a about a three-year slip in the lead ship for the Constellation-class frigate and the Block IV Virginia-class submarine.
The delays are briefly mentioned in an interim progress review directed by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in January to take a comprehensive assessment of shipbuilding to include the national and local causes of industry challenges and to make recommendations (Defense Daily, Jan. 12). The secretary wanted the interim review within 45 days.
The ship programs, the shipbuilders, and the estimated delays are as follows:
- Lead Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, which is being built by General Dynamics [GD] and HII [HII], is about 12 to 16 months behind schedule;
- Virginia-class Block IV nuclear attack submarine, GD and HII, about 36 months;
- Virginia-class Block V, GE and HII, about two years;
- Enterprise (CVN-80), the third Gerald Ford-class aircraft carrier, HII, about 18 to 26 months. Vice Adm. James Downey, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, told reporters on Tuesday that they do not see any schedule delays to CVN-81, the next carrier in the class;
- Lead Constellation-class frigate, Fincantieri Marinette Marine, about three years, putting first delivery in 2029;
- Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship (T-AGOS), Austal, currently in detail design;
- LPD amphibious transport dock (HII), LHA amphibious assault ships (HII), T-AO oilers (GD), and DDG-51 destroyers (GD and HII) are tracking to revised schedule estimates. Downey said that GD is not back to pre-COVID schedules on DDG-51 but is “tracking programmatically” and has a “positive view” of the construction the company is doing at its Bath, Maine, facilities.
Factors contributing to the delays for lead ships in a class include design maturity, first of class challenges, issues with the transition to production, and the design workforce, according to the “Secretary of the Navy’s 45-Day Shipbuilding Review.” For ship classes already in serial production, the progress report cites “acquisition and contract strategy, supply chain, skilled workforce, and government workforce” as contributing factors.
“The initial findings identify common issues from lingering COVID impacts across the national workforce and supply chain landscape with industry reticent to invest,” Nick Guertin, the Navy’s acquisition chief, said on Tuesday during the media roundtable. “Our average scheduled delays are over a year to contracted delivery dates for many of our ships under contract with costs increasingly commensurately as a result of these delays and continued elevated inflation.”
Defense Daily was not invited to the roundtable but was provided a transcript.
The one-page review update also lists five areas to improve including creating a plan to “address atrophy in national design and engineering workforce,” modifying acquisition and contract strategies, highlighting that shipyard and skilled workers are a “national asset,” reviewing the Navy’s workforce posture, and investing to bolster shipbuilding performance and minimize delays.
Downey said that even though the COVID pandemic is over, workforce attrition continues in a “negative direction,” and is some cases it as doubled from when the pandemic began and in other cases it is worse.
The Navy is still sorting out a more detailed path forward, Guertin said. Working better with industry, improving the way the Navy does business, and contracting smarter do not require new funding, he said.