Lolcake
Active Member
Navy Confident It Could Build 3 Virginia SSNs a Year, Though More Study Needed On Shipyard Capacity
“We are looking at expansion options: it will require investment at EB and Newport News, our vendor base. We’re not going to do that at the expense of the Columbia program – the Columbia is the priority. The second priority is to execute the schedule for Block IV and Block V (Virginia-class subs), and we have full confidence we can ramp up to three per year if the Navy is called to go do that.”
The presidents of both shipyards recently said they believed they could handle three SSNs a year but that they and their suppliers would only invest in the additional infrastructure, machinery and people if the Navy sent a clear demand signal and committed to higher shipbuilding rates for a long duration."
Would it be reasonable to justify based on the above to build most if not all boats in the states, would be hell of a lot cheaper and would give them justification to increase their capacity to 3 a year. Concurrently we focus on setting up all necessary personell training, maintenance systems and infrastructure. We would get the boats a hell of a lot quicker than building them here. Would love to see the later boats still built here, but in terms of getting 4-6 boats in the water as fast as possible I'm hoping this is the option that will be provided.
“We are looking at expansion options: it will require investment at EB and Newport News, our vendor base. We’re not going to do that at the expense of the Columbia program – the Columbia is the priority. The second priority is to execute the schedule for Block IV and Block V (Virginia-class subs), and we have full confidence we can ramp up to three per year if the Navy is called to go do that.”
The presidents of both shipyards recently said they believed they could handle three SSNs a year but that they and their suppliers would only invest in the additional infrastructure, machinery and people if the Navy sent a clear demand signal and committed to higher shipbuilding rates for a long duration."
Would it be reasonable to justify based on the above to build most if not all boats in the states, would be hell of a lot cheaper and would give them justification to increase their capacity to 3 a year. Concurrently we focus on setting up all necessary personell training, maintenance systems and infrastructure. We would get the boats a hell of a lot quicker than building them here. Would love to see the later boats still built here, but in terms of getting 4-6 boats in the water as fast as possible I'm hoping this is the option that will be provided.