海军和海岸警卫队造船计划及造船工业基地面临的挑战

Eric J. LabsSenior Analyst for Naval Forces and Weapons At a Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Seapowerand Projection Forces, Committee on Armed Services, and the Chairman Ezell, Chairman Kelly, Ranking MemberCarbajal, and Ranking Member Courtney, thank youfor inviting me to testify about the Navy’s and CoastGuard’s shipbuilding programs and the shipbuildingindustrial base. This testimony is largely based on theCongressional Budget Office’s analysis of the Navy’s2025 shipbuilding plan and of the Coast Guard’s major The source of the increase in costs per ship varies byprogram, but inflation in the wake of the COVID-19pandemic, workforce challenges in the shipbuildingindustrial base, the feasibility of the original cost esti-mate, and difficulty completing the designs of new shipswere common factors. Prominent examples of all four Where Ships Are BuiltAlthough hundreds of companies are involved in build- ing ships and their components, the Navy’s and Coast The Navy’s Unmet Goals for aLarger FleetFor more than 20 years, the Navy has endeavored to build a larger fleet. In that time, the Navy’s goals forits manned fleet have ranged from 306 ships to, mostrecently, 381 ships. As a result, every 30-year shipbuild-ing plan the Navy has produced since at least 2011 hasproposed building a larger fleet by purchasing more shipsand, sometimes, by extending the service life of severalships or entire classes of ship. For a variety of reasons,the Navy has never been able to increase the size of its •Austal Shipbuilding in Mobile, Alabama, which isowned by Austal Limited of Henderson, WesternAustralia, builds littoral combat ships, Coast Guard •Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, which is ownedby General Dynamics of Reston, Virginia, builds •Bollinger Shipyards in Mississippi and Louisianabuilds Coast Guard icebreakers, cutters, and patrolboats; Navy towing, salvage, and rescue ships; and •Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette,Wisconsin, which is owned by Fincantieri of Trieste,Italy, builds the Navy’s new Constellation class frigateand previously built littoral combat ships. Cost Growth in MajorShipbuilding Programs •General Dynamics Electric Boat (hereafter, ElectricBoat) in Groton, Connecticut, which is owned byGeneral Dynamics, builds nuclear-powered ballistic Over the past decade, major Navy and Coast Guardprograms have experienced substantial cost growth.Under the 2025 shipbuilding plan (which covers 2025 to2054), the Navy budgeted more than $10 billion in cost-to-complete funding for shipbuilding.1Cost-to-completeamounts are the additional funding a shipbuildingprogram needs to pay for cost growth in ships thatwere already authorized and fully funded by Congressin prior years. Cost overruns have affected nearly every •Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi,which is owned by Huntington Ingalls Industries ofNewport News, Virginia, builds large and medium-sized amphibious warfare ships and destroyers. It also •National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, orNASSCO, in San Diego, California, which is ownedby General Dynamics, builds large combat logistics •Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News,Virginia, which is owned by Huntington IngallsIndustries, builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, all of which have been delayed beyond their contracteddelivery dates by varying amounts: Delays in Navy andCoast Guard Shipbuilding Many of the Navy’s and Coast Guard’s shipbuilding programs are currently experiencing schedule delays in •The Ford class CVN-80 aircraft carrier, theEnterprise,which was delayed by 18 to 26 months; •The first Columbia class ballistic missile submarine,which was delayed by 12 to 16 months; Delays in Navy ShipbuildingWhereas in the 2000s the shipbuilding industry took 5 to 6 years to build destroyers and submarines, the ship-yards now need 9 to 10 years, on average, to build thoseships. (Those time spans are longer than they were whenCBO published its analysis of the Navy’s 2025 ship-building plan in January 2025, indicating that delayshave continued to grow over the past year.) Nimitz classaircraft carriers took 7 to 8 years to build; Ford classcarriers, by comparison, are taking 10 to 11 years to •The Virginia class attack submarines, which weredelayed by 24 to 36 months; and •The first Constellation class frigate, which wasdelayed by 36 months. The lead T-AGOS ocean surveillance ship is also delayed,but the Navy did not specify for how long. The ship wasfirst authorized by Congress in 2022; its design is not yet The Navy’s review indicated that although amphibiousships and DDG-51 destroyers were also “late to con-tract,” the construction programs for those ships were In early 2024, the Navy conducted a shipbuilding reviewthat showed many of its programs were behind schedule. a.Percentage increases were calculated after the effects of inflation were removed. A review of the Navy’s 2026 budget justification doc-uments reveals that, thus far, the Navy has mad