{"id":33497,"date":"2020-05-20T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/20\/shipbuilding-suppliers-need-more-than-market-forces-to-stay-afloat\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:46:17","slug":"shipbuilding-suppliers-need-more-than-market-forces-to-stay-afloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2020\/05\/20\/shipbuilding-suppliers-need-more-than-market-forces-to-stay-afloat\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipbuilding suppliers need more than market forces to stay afloat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Navy\u2019s award this month<\/a> of the contract for its new class of frigates<\/a> starts the very necessary process of rebalancing<\/a> the U.S. surface fleet, but the competition also highlighted the U.S. shipbuilding-industrial base\u2019s increasing fragility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they lost, two of the four shipyards bidding on the frigate were at risk of either going out of business or joining the underemployed ranks of U.S. commercial shipbuilders. Due to specialization, only one or two yards construct each class of Navy combat ship with workforces, equipment, and infrastructure that would be expensive and difficult to adapt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decision on any single ship class, as with the frigate, can shut down a shipyard and send its workers to the unemployment line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialization is also a problem when orders increase. The Navy\u2019s two submarine shipyards, General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries\u2019 Newport News division, shrank the time needed to build subs by 20 percent during the past decade while increasing production to two per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rising sophistication of Virginia-class submarines has now reversed this trend<\/a>, however, and submarine builders\u2019 challenges are only increasing. They recently started a new contract<\/a> to build up to 10 of the larger Block V Virginia submarines and are in negotiation<\/a> with the Navy on a block-buy contract for the first two Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supplier challenges abound<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. shipbuilders may be fragile, but their suppliers are on life support. After decades of being whipsawed by changes to shipbuilding plans and budget uncertainty, a shrinking number of suppliers are able and willing to stay in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s recent initiatives to improve<\/a> supplier production capacity and resilience don\u2019t go far enough to address its rising dependence on sole-source suppliers, which now provide more than 75 percent<\/a> of submarine parts. For example, when problems with Columbia missile tubes<\/a> led the Navy to seek new suppliers, it replaced<\/a> the existing, primary source \u2014 BWXT \u2014 with another \u2014 General Dynamics \u2014 that will assemble tubes at the same facilities that are constructing parts for the Virginia and Columbia submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the Trump administration used the Defense Production Act to establish<\/a> new suppliers for military missile fuel. The Navy should build on this effort to identify sole-source items for which an additional supplier is appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\t