ARLINGTON, Va. \u2014 Following a budget that yielded a record-breaking $31.5 billion in shipbuilding funds for the U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday has one message to ship construction yards: \u201cPick up the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, Congress made clear the importance of building more ships, Gilday said Jan. 10 at the annual Surface Navy Association conference here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said publicly that I didn\u2019t think that you could put more than $27.5 billion, which was our [fiscal 2023] proposal, into seven shipyards across this country,\u201d he said. \u201cCongress proved me wrong with the $31.5 billion shipbuilding account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, he said, industry hasn\u2019t made clear it can keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked after his speech whether industry can ramp up its production, Gilday said \u201cthat\u2019s a question that only they can answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now, I see them a little bit behind on some of our production lines,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey would tell you \u2026 they think they can do more. So my message to them is: Prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gilday, during his remarks at the conference, ran through the portfolios of some of the shipyards in the U.S. that build surface ships: Fincantieri\u2019s Marinette Marine is wrapping up its work on the Littoral Combat Ship program and will be focused on the frigate. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works is now fully focused on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, after completing work on the Zumwalt destroyers. HII\u2019s Ingalls Shipbuilding has mature production lines for the Burkes as well as amphibious assault ships and amphibious transport docks. And General Dynamics NASSCO is building next-generation oilers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are making investments in ships we really need out there right now,\u201d the CNO said. \u201cWe have 80 ships on contract. We have 54 ships across seven shipyards under construction right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, he added, \u201cwe\u2019re not necessarily getting what we\u2019re paying for\u201d when it comes to how many ships the Navy is buying annually compared to what industry can deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the Navy is buying Virginia-class attack submarines at a rate of two a year, but General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII\u2019s Newport News Shipbuilding are delivering 1.2 a year. Congress just authorized the Navy to buy three destroyers in FY23, compared to the Navy\u2019s request for two, but industry is delivering 1.8 destroyers a year today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even as the Navy and its industry partners are beginning to consider the design of the next-generation combatant, the DDG(X), Gilday said \u201cmy priority right now is making sure that we get the Flight III DDG lines humming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe latest signal from Congress has been three a year; what industry has to do is prove to us that they can produce three ships a year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked by reporters what the Navy could do to incentivize industry to boost capacity, Gilday said the defense and spending bills \u2014 and the nearly $7 billion for three destroyers included in the legislation \u2014 should be enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBath and HII are not producing a combined rate of three DDGs a year. The \u201923 budget gave them funding for three DDGs a year. So that\u2019s a bellwether for them and a new target to aim for, and I\u2019m really anxious for them to aim for it and go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adm. Mike Gilday said Congress has given the Navy record-breaking sums for shipbuilding. Now, industry needs to deliver more ships on schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":116938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,29,16,36,103],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3354],"class_list":["post-62710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-naval","category-newsletters","category-surface-navy-association"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GE5ZAP2HJBCDXFUVDM2MVC7PY4","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2023\/01\/11\/to-shipbuilders-who-think-they-can-build-more-cno-says-prove-it\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n