![]() ![]() A second facility of a few thousand workers, built to the scale of Electric Boat’s big annex at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, would be a welcome boost the company’s manufacturing, outfitting, and modular-construction capabilities, and a real relief to the Navy’s hard-bitten undersea program managers. Unless America’s undersea manufacturing industrial base grows, America’s second naval procurement priority, an ambitious attack submarine building program, will continue to suffer, stranded as a distant secondary priority to the Navy’s big strategic sub.įacing pressure to keep production of both Columbia SSBN and Virginia-class attack subs on schedule, General Dynamics may well seek out more manufacturing support. America’s effort to build at least 12 big new ballistic missile subs requires significant industrial base expansion. The Columbia-class ballistic missile (SSBN) submarine program remains the Navy’s first procurement priority. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Alfred Coffield/Released) USS Illinois and the Los Angeles-class USS Pasadena (SSN 752) are the two fast attack submarines participating in the exercise. The national ensign flies above the Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Illinois (SSN 786) during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2022. "If General Dynamics is willing to subcontract a good portion of their basic work out to a smaller shipyard or two, it would be the real shipbuilding prize of the year, and, potentially, a first step at opening basic submarine fabrication work to a wider, more diverse manufacturing base.".Other areas that may prove interesting over the next year are in space-support and space-port vessels and structures-infrastructure projects to support surging U.S. Navy seems set to continue recapitalizing drydocks, berthing barges and other oft-ignored waterfront infrastructure, offering prepared shipyards unprecedented opportunities to make their margins on the margins of the U.S. ![]() Opportunities also exist outside of the combatants and support vessels enumerated in the Biden Administration’s traditional 30-year shipbuilding plan. With new partners, the benefits of America’s substantial and ongoing investment in the undersea domain may finally start trickling down to smaller shipbuilders in a meaningful way. ![]() ![]() General Dynamics is looking for lots and lots of low-cost help as Electric Boat races to ramp up submarine production. But with commercial shipbuilding ramping up, the government’s lack of urgency in growing the Navy’s surface fleet may not be a bad thing.īehind the scenes, there are plenty of interesting opportunities. Outside of emergent requests for small, expendable or “munitions-like” surface craft, America’s surface ship suppliers must be content with the projects or contracts they already have in hand. surface ships will continue to sit in a relative holding pattern, and with America’s Congressional leaders demanding tough new standards on large surface ship procurements, forcing key subsystems and platforms to mature before authorizing full production, new combatants will be slow to enter the fleet. government remains laser-focused on procuring undersea platforms. Coast Guard’s recent award of a second tranche of Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters, the U.S. With Admiral Michael Gilday approaching the final “lame duck” year of his four-year term as Chief of Naval Operations and the 2024 election season looming, the prospect for major changes in the Navy’s demand signal seems limited.Īside from the U.S. Navy debates maritime strategy, fleet futures and platform performance, America’s naval shipbuilding industry can look forward to another year of relative stasis.īarring a major geopolitical incident or unexpected maritime provocation, government shipbuilding isn’t going to change course. ![]()
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