Top Navy officials this week told congressional panels repairs to dry docks at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF) in Bremerton, Wash., and the delta pier at the Trident Refit Facility (TRF) in Bangor, Wash., related to seismic concerns are expected to be finished by June.
Previously, in January the Navy announced four dry docks were being closed due to concerns they could not withstand earthquakes following a seismic assessment as part of the decades-long Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP) refurbishment effort.
By February, the Navy had started mitigation efforts at one dry dock at PSNS & IMF and another at the Trident Refit Facility. The two other dry docks are set to get repairs after the first two are returned to full service.
When asked about the repairs by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, during a March 28 hearing at the defense subcommittee, the Chief of Naval Operations said the service is “making good progress right now in the repairs” and laid out the expected schedule.
“So the first one at TRF Bangor will be complete in June and that’s the most substantial work that we’re doing – essentially repairing both sides of the entire dry dock.,” Adm. Mike Gilday said.
TRF Bangor repairs Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines while PSNS & IMF repairs aircraft carriers and attack submarines. All three types of vessels use nuclear reactors.
Gilday said that “the two other docks will be finished in April and May. And so they’re progressing well and we’re focused there on those portions of the dock that are closest to the nuclear power plant in the submarines, when we actually put them up in the dry dock.”
He did not disclose which specific dry docks will be finished at which time.
However, the CNO noted the Navy’s FY ‘24 unfunded priorities list includes $300 million to funds these repairs at Puget Sound in the short term (Defense Daily, March 28).
Since the problem was not discovered until late 2022 through early 2023, “that was a late add that didn’t make it into the budget and so I request your help there.”
Over the longer term, Gilday said the Navy will “be looking at other upgrades that we need to make in order to ensure the seismic resiliency of that facility.”
When asked by Murray about what is needed in the longer term, Gilday said they do not have specific funding or actions yet but are looking at what other repairs need to be added as part of the SIOP.
“Longer term, too early for me to state what that requirement is. We are, right now, scoping long term repairs in conjunction with the SIOP work that we’re planning up there as well. We want to make sure that it’s seismically resilient,” the CNO said.
Then during a hearing before the House Appropriations’ defense subcommittee on March 29, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) he would not call the closure and repair work a setback due to long term negligence on shipyard infrastructure.
“I’m not sure I’d actually call the situation that we had a Puget Sound necessarily a setback because when we talk about infrastructure investment, we’ve neglected infrastructure for a long long time and the dry docks and the shipyards are a perfect example of that, over 100-year dry docks, 65 years where we haven’t been paying attention to the shipyards themselves. So the fact that we were actually proactive in this case to identify a problem and actually fix the problem before it actually turned into a catastrophic failure actually is a positive thing, so I don’t always view it as truly a setback.”
Del Toro also noted the Navy was able to avoid this emergency work affecting submarine maintenance too much “because it was at a time when we didn’t have submarines in the docks themselves so we could quickly fix them.”
Del Toro argued the Puget Sound seismic repair effort is possibly the fastest he has seen such a plan come together.
“I think, in all my years of experience working in the Navy active duty and now as secretary, I’ve never seen so many stakeholders come together so quickly to get approval on a plan, fund that plan and now execute that plan, where hopefully this month and next month and the month after we’ll actually be able to do the immediate repairs on those three dry docks.”
Del Toro repeated the request for an additional $300 million in the FY ‘24 budget to cover the costs of all of the repairs.
“We’ve already invested about $100 million in the immediate repairs – so we would certainly appreciate those funds being put back into the budget.”
Earlier in March, the Navy awarded the Kiewit–Alberici joint venture a $71 million modification to install and construct risk mitigation measures at Dry Docks 4 and 5 at PSNS&IMF and the Trident Refit Facility dry dock. This added to a previous $76 million task order for work at these three dry docks (Defense Daily, March 10).