US repair yards feeling the squeeze

In late December, the US Federal Government narrowly agreed on a stopgap funding bill which would prevent a Government shutdown. The Continuing Resolution (CR) includes USD 14 billion of support for the Columbia and Virginia-class submarine programmes, comprising USD 9 billion of procurement funding and USD 5.7 billion for the “improvement of workforce wages and non-executive level salaries”.

But the US’ private shipyards, which maintain naval vessels, are expecting to feel the pinch from the CR, which effectively freezes federal funding until March for 300 companies and 79,000 workers, according to the Virginia Ship Repair Association. “There’s not work out there, and there’s not work being done, and there’s not income coming into these companies – they’ll end up having to lay off,” Bill Crow, President of Virginia Ship Repair Association, told local news station WVEC-TV Norfolk.

US defence sources note that naval shipyards have been struggling recently with an ongoing recruitment crisis which began during the pandemic. The challenge comes at a time when the US Navy is attempting to overhaul US naval ship repair and construction with the latest technologies, according to the Navy’s Advanced Manufacturing Strategy document, published late in 2024, calling for 3D printing and additive manufacturing to be incorporated in shipyards’ repertoire.

According to a report by US defence-spending watchdog the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 16 of the Navy’s 32 Amphibious Warfare vessels are in poor condition, with some vessels unavailable “for years at a time”.