Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] Newport News Shipbuilding is the midst of making improvements to its yard to support work on the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the Virginia-class and Ohio replacement submarines, but if the Navy continues procuring attack submarines at a two-per-year pace, the company will need to make additional investments, executives told Defense Daily in April.
The Navy’s current program of record would slow Virginia-class submarine construction to one per year during years when an Ohio replacement sub also is procured, but the service is considering maintaining the two-per-year pace to mitigate an attack submarine shortfall (Defense Daily, April 8).
Newport News is expanding its yard to accommodate construction of the first Ohio replacement submarine as well as additional Virginia-class deliveries specified in the service’s recent Submarine Unified Build Strategy, said Jim Hughes, the company’s vice president of submarines and fleet support. The centerpiece of that effort—the 500,000-square foot Joint Manufacturing and Assembly Facility—would provide additional capacity for submarine and aircraft carrier production.
But if the Navy requires two Virginia class subs in 2021 as well as a new ballistic missile submarine, Newport News will need to pour even more money into the yard.
“The secretary [of defense] supports it and the Navy would like it,” Hughes said of the potential changes to the program of record. “We would have to do some additional investments to support that, but we are positioned to do that if and when that occurs.”
If the two-per-year delivery strategy for the Virginia-class continues, the shipbuilder would have to
make enhancements to two parts of the yard associated with delivering the boomers: the module outfitting facility and supplemental module outfitting facility built for final assembly of the submarine’s bow, he said.
“We would need an additional fixture for bows and sterns, and we would need some additional delivery capacity and capability, which we’re willing to invest in,” he said.
The cost of that work would depend on the final requirements and timing of the construction, Hughes added. Because those modifications are tied to delivery, the Navy can take its time in deciding whether to alter its current plan.
“Even as late as 2020, we can certainly support what we would need to do,” he said. “We’re staying very closely linked with the Navy and we’re not trying to get ahead of them. We’re just making sure that we’re keeping pace with what those likelihoods are.”
Newport News would also need to hire additional personnel on top of what it expects it will need when Ohio replacement construction starts, but Hughes said he does not expect any difficulties associated with expanding its workforce.
“We’ve certainly supported much larger increases and decreases in recent times without an issue,” he said, adding that the company is still analyzing how many workers it would need to hire if the program of record changes.
Newport News and General Dynamics [GD] Electric Boat split construction of the Virginia-class submarine, with vendors alternating final assembly and delivery duties. In its Submarine Unified Build Strategy, the Navy determined that Electric Boat would be responsible for about 80 percent of the work for the Ohio replacement submarine, but that Newport News could take on additional deliveries.
Newport News plans to spend more than $500 million on facility upgrades to support the Navy’s current plan. That sum pays for the Joint Manufacturing Assembly Facility (JMAF), advanced fixtures and robotic welding machinery that will help boost efficiency and reduce cost, he said. The company broke ground on the facility last June and plans to open it in 2017.
The JMAF will include additional covered outfitting facilities for the Ford-class aircraft carrier, as well as additional fixtures to support the Ohio class replacement and structural bow work on the Virginia-class submarines.
“The fixturing and the facility work that we’re talking about here reduces manhours to some extent, but it reduces schedule significantly,” Hughes said.