'We Need It Faster': Joe Courtney Asks Experts How The Navy Can Quicken Production Of Vessels

yesterday

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) spoke about improving the speed of Navy vessel production.

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Transcript

00:00I now recognize, a little bit out of order, my good friend, the Ranking Member, Mr. Courtney,

00:05for five minutes of questions, upon which I'll close after.

00:08Great.

00:09Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ms. Oakley, I just wanted to go back to your comments regarding

00:15requirements and design completion before construction, which I could not agree with

00:19you more, but in terms of the Columbia program, because that was sort of in the mix there,

00:28when Columbia cut its first steel, it was 87% design complete, which, and I'm old enough

00:34to remember the Ohio class submarine program, which it's replacing, it was less than 20%

00:41at that time.

00:42A lot of land-based testing has been done for, you know, the propulsors, you know, before

00:47it even got near the submarine for assembly that's there, and I think, again, that reduced

00:54a lot of risk during the process.

00:56It's late right now, no question about it.

00:58There are two reasons, number one, two primary reasons, the power turbine generator is late,

01:03coming from Sunnydale, north of Grumman, it's a new technology, first in its time, I mean,

01:10it's going to take a while to, but they can't sort of build the rest of the submarine and

01:15then have to cut it open to insert, they have to wait for it, and the bow is late, from

01:20Newport News.

01:21Again, there's a Tiger team that's down there working in terms of trying to get that, but

01:26in terms of, you know, really a program where the requirements and design was done up front,

01:32I mean, honestly, Admiral Papano, I think, did an outstanding job in terms of just relentlessly

01:39pushing that sort of sequence as that program was going into place.

01:45Dr. Seidel, in terms of the requirements issue, again, GAO is right about the fact that, you

01:50know, this has been, whether Frigate and some of the other LCS, just it was changing, you

01:55know, it seemed like every hearing Sea Power held over the years.

02:00The vessel contract manager that I mentioned in opening remarks, where we used a commercial

02:06model for the maritime training ships, which can be converted into a, you know, a sealift

02:13vessel at time of emergency, I mean, it worked, and it just, it seems like we've had Navy

02:18personnel come visit the Philly shipyard to see it for themselves, again, it just feels

02:23like, you know, we've got to go more with the Navy in terms of just getting them to

02:28let go, maybe even, you know, some of the less exquisite vessels to just sort of, you

02:33know, follow what the commercial industry is doing so that we can speed things up.

02:37I mean, I was wondering if you could comment on that.

02:39Yeah, two things.

02:41One, you know, to the point about design, and we've had a lot of discussion about that

02:44today, I feel like for success in this arena, it's rigor and discipline and requirements

02:52than design and production, because if you're rigorous about all three, then things flow,

02:58you don't get out of sequence material, you don't have those kind of issues.

03:01I think we have an insatiable demand, appetite for capabilities at times, for good reason.

03:08We are the finest Navy ever assembled because we have capabilities that outpace our adversaries,

03:13and so when we come to those crossroads, we always struggle to say, stop, we've already

03:20snapped a chalk line, we need to stay with the design we have so that it's more producible

03:24for our industry partners.

03:27So I think we know what to do to make that better.

03:31We've got to be rigorous and disciplined in doing it.

03:34To your point about MARAD and the Vessel Construction Manager, I've taken several briefs on that

03:38now.

03:39I concur with you.

03:40It looks like they've been very successful, controlled some of the little R requirements

03:45compared to the big R requirements, and have led to some decreased costs there that I think

03:50looks good.

03:51So I intend to go meet with them and have some real discussion.

03:54I think there's some opportunity in our space to take that model and use it for some of

03:59the work that we're doing, and my commitment is to lean in and work to try to do that.

04:03I mean, that's great to hear, and anything we can do to push that along, for sure.

04:09Appreciate it.

04:10Ms. Oakley, again, I was glad to hear that you now are going to be focusing on workforce

04:14training as part of a project that's here.

04:16I really encourage you to come up to Groton and see the manufacturing pipeline.

04:20Again, that reason why they hit that 5,300 higher number, it was 4,000 last year, and

04:26having such great retention is because of the design of the curriculum, okay?

04:30And it's something now that I think other regions are starting to emulate, because,

04:36you know, if it's too short, then people are going to flush out once they see the reality

04:41of a shipyard.

04:42If it's too long, it's just too long.

04:43We need it faster.

04:44So, again, I hope you'll take up my invitation.

04:47We have definitely been there, and we will be back.

04:49Great.

04:51I yield back.

'We Need It Faster': Joe Courtney Asks Experts How The Navy Can Quicken Production Of Vessels

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