The US Navy’s production of warships is at its worst in 25 years. What is behind it?

The Navy’s ability to build lower-cost warships that can shoot down Houthi rebel missiles in the Red Sea depends in part on a 25-year-old worker who previously made parts for garbage trucks.

Lucas Andreini, a welder at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., is among thousands of young workers who have received employer-sponsored training nationwide as shipyards struggle to hire and retain employees.

Manpower shortages are one of the myriad challenges that have led to delays in ship production and maintenance at a time when the Navy faces growing global threats. Combined with shifting defense priorities, last-minute design changes and cost overruns, it has put the US behind China in terms of the number of ships at its disposal – and the gap is widening.

Naval shipbuilding is currently in “terrible shape” — the worst in a quarter century, says Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. “I feel alarmed,” he said. “I don’t see a quick and easy way to get rid of this problem. It took us a long time to get into it.”

Marinette Marine is under contract to build six guided-missile frigates — the Navy’s newest surface warfare vessels — with options to build four more. But it only has enough workers to produce one frigate a year, according to Labs.

Where have all the workers gone?

One of the industry’s main problems is the struggle to hire and retain workers for the difficult work of building new ships as groomed veterans retire, taking decades of experience with them.

Shipyards across the country have created training academies and partnered with technical colleges to give workers the skills they need to build high-tech warships. Submarine builders and the Navy have formed an alliance to promote careers in manufacturing, and shipyards offer perks to retain workers once hired.

Andreini trained for his job in Marinette through a program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Before that, he spent several years as a production line welder making components for garbage trucks. He said some of his friends are held back by the stigma that shipbuilding is a “bad, unsafe work environment”.

But that’s not the reality, he said. His health benefits are better than at his previous job, he will receive a pension for the first time, and there is an opportunity to acquire even more advanced skills than he received during his initial training.

Besides, Andreini says, he feels he is serving his country.

“It makes me happy to be able to do my part and possibly make sure that the sailors and some of my friends from the service come home safe,” said Andreini, whose father was in the Navy in Vietnam.

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Alonie Lake, also a welder, fellow technical college program graduate and single mother, is happy for a job with long-term stability — something the Navy’s contract stock virtually guarantees.

Lake, 32, said he believes many young people are interested in jobs in the trades “and the satisfaction of working with their hands to create tangible results.”

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro recently emphasized the importance of training programs during commencement ceremonies at a Maine community college. The college has partnered with the nearby Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to teach workers the skills needed to repair nuclear submarines.

“It is incumbent on all of us to consider how we can best lend our talents and, in the case of graduates, their newly developed skills, to build our great nation for all Americans and to defend against the threats and challenges of today. he said.

Once workers are hired, will they stay?

The Navy is trying to help shipyards ensure that once new workers are trained and hired, they stay in a tight labor market.

In Wisconsin, part of the $100 million in marine funds being provided to Marinette Marine is being used for retention bonuses at the shipyard, whose past employee retention has been described by Del Toro as “atrocious.”

The shipyard, which employs more than 2,000 workers, offers bonuses of up to $10,000 to keep workers, spokesman Eric Dent said. “The labor shortage is definitely a problem and it’s a general problem for all shipyards,” he said.

Detention is a concern even for shipyards that have met their goals, including Huntington Ingalls Industries, which makes destroyers and amphibious warfare ships in Mississippi and aircraft carriers and submarines in Virginia.

The company creates training partnerships with colleges and public schools at all grade levels. The Mississippi improvements include more than one million square feet (92,900 square meters) of covered work area, cooling and hydration stations and a second dining area with a Chick-fil-A. Huntington Ingalls also partnered with the Navy and the city of Newport News, Virginia, to build a new garage for workers and sailors.

A problem decades in the making

Much of the blame for current U.S. shipbuilding problems rests with the Navy, which frequently changes requirements, requests upgrades, and modifies designs after shipbuilders begin construction.

This is seen in cost overruns, technology challenges and delays in the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Ford; augmenting a gun system for a stealth destroyer program after its missile-assisted projectiles became too expensive; and the early retirement of some of the Navy’s lightly armored littoral combat ships, which were prone to breakdowns.

The Navy has promised to learn from those past lessons with the new frigates they are building at Marinette Marine. Frigates are valued because they are less expensive to produce than larger destroyers, but have similar weapon systems.

The navy chose a ship design already in use by the navies of France and Italy, rather than starting from scratch. The idea was that 15% of the ship would be updated to meet US Navy specifications, while 85% would remain unchanged, reducing costs and speeding up construction.

Instead, the opposite happened: The Navy redesigned 85 percent of the ship, leading to cost increases and construction delays, said Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington. Construction of the first Constellation warship, which began in August 2022, is now three years behind schedule, with delivery pushed back to 2029.

The final design is still not finalized.

Changing threats and changing plans

Further complicating matters is something beyond the Navy’s control: the changing nature of global threats.

Throughout its history, the Navy has had to adapt to various threats, be it the Cold War of recent decades or current threats, including war in the Middle East, increasing competition from the Chinese and Russian navies, piracy off the coast coast of Somalia and persistent attacks. on merchant ships of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

And that’s not all. Consolidating shipyards and funding uncertainties have disrupted the pace of shipbuilding and hindered investment and long-term planning, says Matthew Paxton of the Shipbuilders Council of America, a national trade association.

“We’ve been dealing with inconsistent shipbuilding plans for years,” Paxton said. “When we finally start growing, the Navy is shocked that we lost members of the workforce.”

The Navy insists it takes shipbuilding issues seriously.

“The Navy’s role in defending our nation and promoting peace has never been more extensive or mattered more,” said Lt. Kyle Hanton, a spokesman for Del Toro’s office. “We continue to work with our industry partners to identify creative solutions to our solution. common challenges”.