Renewed focus on United States shipbuilding

During his address to the joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump promised an expansion of American shipbuilding to support the U.S. military and the commercial sector.

“We’re also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” Trump said. “I’m announcing tonight that we’ll create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs.”

John Phelan was confirmed as the new Navy Secretary and also shared similar thoughts when he addressed the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing.

“The U.S. Navy is at [a] crossroads, with extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed shipbuilding, failed audits...” Phelan said. “These are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long. Frankly, this is unacceptable. Every shipbuilding delay, every maintenance backlog, and every inefficiency is an opening for our adversaries to challenge our dominance. We cannot allow that to happen.”

It’ll be a tall task as the Congressional Budget Office believes the Navy would have to spend more than $40 billion a year through 2054 to achieve its proposed plan to expand its battleship fleet according to its analysis published in January.

Military Times reports the Navy wants to grow its fleet to 381; there are currently 295 ships in the fleet but that number is expected to drop to 283 by 2027 when the Navy plans to retire 13 ships.

Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, also testified before Congress in February in hopes of bolstering the U.S.’ shipbuilding industry and said, “The U.S. shipyard industrial base is a diverse and critical manufacturing sector of our nation’s economy. However, a series of compounding challenges, including budget instability, excessive oversight, and an outdated approach to ship acquisition, threatens our ability to compete with near-peer adversaries.”

Paxton also laid out recommendations to Congress to help get U.S. shipbuilding back on track:

• Use existing capacity by recognizing that U.S. shipyards are capable of more than current contracting models allow.
• Streamline oversight to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks and improve efficiency.
• Balance competition with collaboration by fostering partnerships between shipbuilders and the Navy.
• Commit to stable and predictable budgets that support long-term industry planning.
• Emphasize mission-sufficient designs rather than over-engineering ships to the point of infeasibility.
• Invest in the repair and modernization sector to ensure the longevity and readiness of the fleet.

President Trump’s focus on shipbuilding should be great for the industry but federal money and Congressional support are definitely needed to make the President’s dreams a reality. Drop me an email about what manufacturing you do with U.S. military shipbuilding.