To meet the requirements of the Navy and Marine Corps as the existing fleet ages, the Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships must deliver capable and deployable warships—on time and on budget. To do this requires developing capable products that can be manufactured rapidly, a trained and stable workforce, and investments in the shipbuilding industrial base and supply chain. It also requires the Navy to respect, understand, and operate within budgetary constraints while maximizing the value of acquisitions. This will necessitate prioritizing investments based on operational needs, and sustainment should be a part of a platform’s acquisition strategy from the beginning.
Since 2019, when it was charged with managing fleet sustainment, the acquisition community has focused on the entire lifecycle of naval assets, from design and procurement through maintenance to, ultimately, disposal. Through this process, we implement strategies to enhance systems’ longevity, sustainability, and upgradability. To be a leader in world-class ship design and construction, the Navy needs a renewed focus and a collaborative, multipronged approach centered on the “PPP framework”—product, people, and process.
Begin with the end in mind: more ships and a focus on product. At the heart of the Navy’s acquisition process must be a deep understanding of the surface force’s operational requirements. To this end, the acquisition community should foster strong and enduring relationships with requirements generators within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OpNav). Regular communication and reciprocal feedback between operational forces and the acquisition community are essential. OpNav must clearly articulate requirements that allow us to create detailed specifications that meet operational needs and provide a strong foundation for our industry shipbuilding partners to accurately assess work scope. “Requirements creep” should be minimized to avoid changes to a ship’s design.
Naval ships are unique in defense acquisition because they typically are intended to last 25 to 50 years. To support that, ships should be designed to the maximum extent practicable with flexibility to adapt to evolving threats, enhance sustainment, and support modernization through modular systems. These systems should be easily upgraded or modified as needed. Recently, on new amphibious assault ships and the Gerald R. Ford–class carriers, modular, flexible infrastructure deck systems have been introduced within ship compartment types that have historically been subjected to frequent requirement changes. This will permit flexibility to support the rapid reconfiguration of equipment foundations on decks and bulkheads, thus decreasing the time required to upgrade a system and lowering the associated modernization costs.
The workhorses of the fleet—the Arleigh Burke–class destroyers—demonstrate the success of this approach. Building on previous Flight II and Flight IIA capability upgrades, in the summer of 2023 the Navy awarded multiyear procurement contracts to Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)–Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics–Bath Iron Works for up to 15 new Flight III destroyers. The multiyear procurements deliver on the Navy’s commitment to build and sustain a lethal, resilient force, provide a predictable builder workload while growing near-term capability and capacity, encourage investment in facilities and workforce, and achieve these at the lowest competitive price. Multiyear and multiship procurements help mitigate uncertainty associated with budget delays and continuing resolutions. To take full advantage of these authorities, industry must demonstrate overall cost savings from stable workloads.
Multiple PEOs are supporting the push to quickly develop and field hypersonic weapons. At PEO Ships, we are working closely with HII-Ingalls to adapt the existing Zumwalt-class design to accommodate those weapons, and we are asking our industry partners to consider how these adaptations might work with future surface ships.
As the USNS John Lewis (T-AO-205) joins the fleet, this new class of fleet replenishment oilers is meeting a vital operational need. General Dynamics NASSCO collaborated with the Navy to develop an efficient configuration that balanced capability against cost. With a 4 percent increase in liquid cargo capacity, 29 percent increase in dry cargo, and 280 percent increase in freeze and chill capacity, the John Lewis class includes the latest E-Stream cargo transfer system to minimize the time alongside while transferring the same amount of fuel and cargo at a rate 40 percent faster than the legacy system. Military Sealift Command estimates an additional 37 steaming days per year will be gained compared to a T-AO-187 class oiler.
Next, focus on people. A significant portion of the pre-COVID-19 workforce exited shipbuilding during the pandemic; today, the majority of the workforce has less than five years of experience, and retaining new employees is challenging. To manage human capital, PEO Ships and industry partners must focus on skill development and interagency collaboration. Section 122 of the 2023 NDAA created Navy Shipbuilding Workforce Development Special Incentive authorities. Using these, the Navy’s acquisition community is supporting education and training programs to build a skilled workforce.
In addition, the Navy shipbuilding team has partnered with the Department of Labor’s Office of Job Corps (OJC) to promote opportunities within the shipbuilding sector. Job Corps is a federally funded network, comprising 122 centers nationwide that provide skilled-trade training to approximately 30,000 students annually. The portion of those students in manufacturing curricula represents a valuable connection for the shipbuilding industrial base.
In late 2023, the Navy and OJC hosted shipbuilding career fairs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Mississippi, that included participation from 11 shipyards and suppliers, 14 Job Corps centers, and approximately 210 OJC students and instructors. In 2024, the Navy will pursue quarterly shipbuilding hiring fairs across the United States, and OJC is willing to align shipbuilding-specific instruction and coursework to meet regional suppliers’ requirements.
Moving forward, the Navy wants to partner more with the shipbuilding industry to renew the workforce by taking advantage of the authorities Congress granted in the NDAA and to the Labor Department for OJC. But funding those authorities will require support from the Navy, state and local governments, and industry.
Finally: improving processes. In November 2023, the Secretary of the Navy helped kick off the reestablishment of the Government Shipbuilding Council. Members include the Navy, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Maritime Administration, Army, and Office of the Secretary of Defense. The goal of the council is to share program experiences, cooperate on national shipbuilding issues, strengthen the shipbuilding industrial base, and identify opportunities to employ each organization’s capabilities to maximize government savings in costs, time, and resources.
The efficiency of the shipbuilding industrial base and supply chain is vital to meeting the objectives of national strategies. Building a successful partnership between the Navy and the industrial base involves effective communication, mutual understanding, and a clear contractual framework. There are several ways shipbuilding processes can be improved.
PEO Ships, Naval Sea Systems Command, and industry must collaborate early and often in the design process. Industry expertise can provide valuable insights to optimize designs for producibility and cost-effectiveness. For example, the DDG(X) program will follow a model based on the Columbia submarine program’s integrated product and process development. This collaborative design approach is Navy-led and industry-supported—and mutually beneficial. The Navy will establish multidisciplinary integrated product teams that will include the large surface combatant shipbuilders, suppliers, and other industry partners. Design, specification development, and production planning will overlap and inform acquisition cost estimates and operation and sustainment assessments. Collaborative programs will foster information sharing, enhance innovation, and help streamline the later stages of the procurement process. Planned procurement of equipment for the land-based DDG(X) test site already has been a joint Navy/industry effort.
In addition, the Navy should streamline procurement processes to reduce delays and ensure timely delivery of needed assets. This will involve optimizing acquisition timelines, minimizing bureaucratic hurdles, and employing modern technologies such as digital and additive manufacturing. Industry can help by determining where additive manufacturing can be used in the near term to speed construction.
While contracts are necessary, the pandemic has taught us to build flexibility into them to accommodate unforeseen marketplace changes and take advantage of investment opportunities without introducing avoidable conflicts that slow ship deliveries. Including economic price adjustment clauses can mitigate materials-related inflation risks, and sharing cost risk allows more focus on building the right product more expeditiously.
Our work is not done; there are still many challenges to address. We will continue to improve best practices and focus on product, people, and processes.