'Do We Need More Shipyards?': Dan Sullivan Presses Pentagon Officials On US 'Shipbuilding Crisis'

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) spoke about increasing the United States' shipbuilding capacity.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And gentlemen, thank you for your testimony. By the way, as a senator,

00:09I've gotten to kind of dig deep into the whole history of the nuclear navy, and it's a really

00:14remarkable organization. And, you know, you guys are all part of something in my view that's very

00:20special. It started out under some really unique leadership with Admiral Rickover. And then the

00:30systems in which we continue today have a long-term billet assignment for the

00:40Admiral in charge of the nuclear navy, an eight-year assignment. So one of the things I tried

00:48to do last year, and I raised this in the hearing two weeks ago on conventional surface shipbuilding,

00:54is saying, hey, why wouldn't we want to do something similar on shipbuilding? I asked

01:00Vice Admiral Downey on NAVC, from NAVC, should we make the NAVC billet like the head of navy

01:13nuclear reactors? Eight years. And that way, you can actually oversee shipbuilding. It was interesting,

01:22I didn't know this, but Admiral Downey said, well, NAVC is a three-year billet, but it often gets

01:28extended, which actually kind of makes my point. So last year, I had a provision that this committee

01:35passed and voted on pretty strongly bipartisan vote that got in the Senate's NDAA bill for having NAVC to

01:43have an eight-year billet, just like the head of navy nuclear reactors. So that individual, and then be

01:48done, retired, can actually seriously oversee shipbuilding, not have to look at your next billet

01:55assignment. What do you gentlemen think about that? I think Admiral Downey kind of liked the idea. I like

02:01the idea. I think we're going to re-attack it again. Big Navy stripped it out last year in the

02:06conference with the House. I have no idea what the hell the House was doing, but the Navy didn't like

02:11it for some reason. Why? Why wouldn't we want to do that? It works for you guys. Why wouldn't it work

02:18for shipbuilding writ large? Anyone have a view on that? Sir, I'll just start. I probably have a little

02:25bit of a unique perspective on my panel here in PEO carriers. I'm actually not a nuclear-trained

02:30officer. I have immensely enjoyed working with naval reactors over the last two years in the job

02:35and have been incredibly impressed with it. Do you think part of their impressiveness is the fact

02:40that the head of navy nuclear reactors has an eight-year billet and retires? I do. I'm certain

02:46that steady, capable leadership is part of their success, absolutely. Would that help in shipbuilding?

02:52Longevity, the ability to see programs through a long period of time, I think is always helpful.

02:57People often bring up other factors such as being change agents and bringing fresh sets of eyes.

03:04From my perspective... But if your fresh set of eyes are leaving every three years, you're...

03:07Yes, sir. It has to be looked at for every job. From a PEO's perspective, I certainly trust

03:14Navy leadership to balance that properly. Yeah. Not always. Sometimes we know what we're talking about

03:20here. Sometimes we don't, but sometimes we do. Let me move on to another question. I just literally

03:25walked out of a meeting with Admiral Cottle and we were talking about the same issue. He mentioned to

03:32me from 1960 to 64, the United States produced 41 boomer strategic submarines. 41 in four years. So we can do

03:45this. We all know we can do this. But we had a lot more shipyards back then. In the last 30 years,

03:51the number of public shipyards has been halved, leaving four and only seven private new construction

03:57yards still in existence. Only two are private. What's more concerning is that we have only two private

04:06nuclear shipyards and both of those are on the East Coast. The good news is there's very strong

04:14bipartisan support right now in the Senate and the House to help the Navy fix its shipbuilding crisis.

04:21And now you have the support of the President of the United States. When the State of the Union

04:24has said he's making this a priority. Do we need more shipyards? Do we need West Coast shipyards?

04:32And if we did, I think this Congress would say, how many? We'll pay for them. What do you guys think?

04:41Open any and all. I appreciate the question, sir. I think with our two nuclear shipbuilders today,

04:47we've been talking so far to the committee about all the work we're doing to move work

04:51outside of the two shipbuilders to what we call strategic outsourcing. The number we were talking

04:57about, it's about seven million hours per year. So the equivalent of a surface ship, a destroyer,

05:02that we're pushing out to the industrial base to other locations from a public ship. Do we need

05:06more shipyards? So the shipyards, we're actually evaluating that right now, sir. We have a joint

05:12study going on with the Secretary of Defense's office, the Cape, as well as the Navy that we'll be

05:17finishing up. And we're in evaluation right now what will be required. What do you think, Admiral?

05:21I actually have the team that's running that study, and I'm waiting to see the final results. So I'll

05:27be able to get back to you later this year, sir. Admiral Weeks.

05:31Sir, I agree with Admiral Rucker that we absolutely need more shipbuilding capacity in this nation.

05:36So whether that is discrete shipyards, or as our current strategy is, which is to shift work out

05:44across the nation, right, not necessarily be constrained by coastal areas. I think, you know,

05:50my perspective, the right answer is we've got to grow our capacity. And I think that comes in lots

05:54of different ways. And I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the study that Admiral Rucker referred

05:59to, to make sure we're being smart about how we pursue it. Mr. Sherman, Admiral Martin, any of you guys

06:04have a view on this? Sir, I think it's critically important that we get the shipyards that are both

06:12public in the maintenance world and, as you mentioned, our two nuclear yards to full capacity

06:18at three shifts and humming there as we assess, which is part of what the study that Admiral Rucker

06:24is participating in is doing. And so the workforce efforts that we're undertaking to do that, to be

06:31able to really take advantage of three shifts at the public shipyards and take advantage of manning there,

06:37as well as how we use advanced manufacturing have both got uplift possibilities.

06:40Sir, I, you know, completely agree with my partners up here. You know, aircraft carriers are a little

06:48bit different. Obviously, the size of the platform, there's only two naval shipyards that are able to

06:53work on them and one shipyard that's able to build. But collectively, I think it's an important part of

06:57the discussion. We're actually part of the study that Admiral Rucker mentions. I can assure you that it is

07:02data-based. It is, you know, looking hard at the future capacity and the future workload, and it's going to

07:08inform the right decision, I'm sure. Sorry, Mr. Chairman, just one final question on aircraft

07:13carriers. We have one company in America that can build aircraft carriers, is that right?

07:17That's correct, sir. Newport News Shipbuilding from HII is our carrier shipbuilder.

07:22Thank you. Thank you.

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