News from 2024 ASIU: Navy may need to lean on private shipyards

Sailors assigned to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) check air control valves aboard Stennis in Newport News, Virginia. Image courtesy of MC Seaman Apprentice Sage Velarde, USN and retrieved from Defense One.

As the Navy battles ongoing schedule delays, supply chain problems, and workforce challenges in its effort to produce more submarines, the service may need to turn to private repair shipyards to rebuild capacity.

US shipyards are up to three years behind on submarine orders for the Navy’s Columbia and Virginia class submarines, and the AUKUS deal to provide Australia with submarines has added even more pressure. To address that, the Navy wants to increase repairs of aging submarines to keep them operational for longer.

Matt Sermon, executive director of the strategic submarines program executive office, was one of the speakers at the 2024 Annual Symposium and Industry Update (ASIU). At the event, he stated: “The sustainment goals are getting [nuclear-powered submarines] to 80 percent, getting the Ohio to even past the end of its life in serving the nation. But every bit as important [are] the manufacturing technology efforts and the workforce efforts that [submarine industrial base] is doing…those are a rising tide that floats all boats… We seek to help the entire supply chain, right? To have material available, and to get the workers in the public shipyards, in the repair yards.”

Learn more on Defense One.