Outlining the Challenges to U.S. Naval Shipbuilding

From the report: "Growing the size of the Navy has been a bipartisan goal of successive administrations and Congress over the last decade. The service faces capacity limitations as it struggles to meet the demands of its current aggressive operational tempo with a fleet that is small by historical standards and faces delays in conducting maintenance. The demand to increase the Navy’s ship count has only grown as China’s navy has overtaken the U.S. fleet in terms of size with the blistering rate of production of its own shipbuilding industry.

Despite the Navy’s plans for growing the fleet and bipartisan efforts and funding from Congress, the U.S. shipbuilding enterprise—including the Navy, Department of Defense (DoD), Congress, and industry—has failed to consistently produce ships at the scale, speed, and cost demanded. These longstanding challenges stem from a series of interwoven, systemic issues within both the U.S. government and industry, as well as broader socioeconomic trends. This report outlines the challenges facing the U.S. naval shipbuilding enterprise, their underlying drivers, and some efforts the government has taken to mitigate them.

The government struggles to provide a consistent demand signal—in the form of the Navy’s annual budget request and long-range shipbuilding plans, Congress’s authorization and appropriations actions in response to those plans, and the contracts signed with industry partners—to the shipbuilders, hindering their efforts to plan over the long term and invest accordingly. The Navy’s volatile requirements process and, at times, unstable ship designs also contribute to shortcomings in program performance, delays, and cost overruns."

Authors - Daniels, Seamus P., Cook, Cynthia R., Carroll, Henry H., Buntin, Oliver, O'Rourke, Sarah

Subjects

Management and Governance

Authors

Daniels, Seamus P., Cook, Cynthia R., Carroll, Henry H., Buntin, Oliver, O'Rourke, Sarah

Format

PDF - Download