During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) spoke about the expansion of defense industry.
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00:00Mr. Chairman, I want to follow up on this line of questioning.
00:03Everybody around here for the past three or four years has been talking about rebuilding the defense industrial base,
00:09expanding the defense industrial base.
00:12How do we do it?
00:14Is that a matter of more contracts for the big crime contractors?
00:19Is it bringing new people into the business?
00:22Is it encouraging smaller companies?
00:25I mean, this is one of those things everybody talks about, but I never hear much in the way of specifics about how to go about it.
00:32Mr. Chairman, what are your thoughts?
00:34Thank you, Senator.
00:36My three primary focus areas that are absolutely aimed at capacity are getting the workforce that we need.
00:46And that's at the—
00:48That's going to be my next question.
00:49That's not just at the shipbuilders, but in the supply chain, across the nation, right?
00:54Not just on where the shipyards are on the coast.
00:56Isn't one of the big issues supply chain, second and third order suppliers?
01:00Yes, sir.
01:01It absolutely is.
01:02And so my second item is foundational investment in our supply chain.
01:08We have in the submarine community in particular, about 70% of our critical suppliers are single or sole source, meaning we don't have a backup method.
01:16So getting a backup supplier or getting that supplier to where they're very competitive, both in terms of schedule and cost, is crucially important.
01:24But one of the problems—we've had testimony before the full committee that smaller companies have given up trying to contract with the Pentagon.
01:33It's so burdensome, slow, so much paperwork, and we're losing the opportunity to develop this capacity in anything but larger entities.
01:45Yes, sir.
01:46I think it's absolutely necessary for us to lower some of those barriers to entry, to get more suppliers in.
01:53One of the ways we're pursuing that is through advanced manufacturing.
01:56We see that, you know, as we know to get to the full 100% capacity required for the 1 plus 2 number that we use,
02:02that we're going to require many, many additional components across the industrial base.
02:07And when we look at capacity and look at workforce and look at what our foundational infrastructure is,
02:11we know we'll need advanced manufacturing for that.
02:13What are the bottlenecks in the Columbia program?
02:15Is it suppliers?
02:16Is it electric boat?
02:18Where could we poke to improve the throughput?
02:26Yes, sir.
02:28I'll address that as the PEO for Columbia.
02:31So it is all the things that Matt Sermon said.
02:33It's absolutely supply chain challenges.
02:35I would offer that because of the unique authorities that we have with the Columbia program,
02:40so the advanced construction, advanced procurement authorities, we've been able to minimize some of those impacts,
02:48but we do still feel them.
02:50We also have the challenges in the shipyards themselves, right?
02:53The workforce, you know, the green workforce we have in those shipyards,
02:57their ability to not be as efficient as they need to be.
03:01Those are also pacing us.
03:04And then unique to Columbia, at least on the first ship, is we have the first of class sort of learning that you always have with the first of class.
03:10We're working through those as well.
03:13Let's talk about workforce.
03:14You fellows have mentioned it two or three times.
03:16I believe we're headed into a time when workforce, well, workforce is a huge barrier now.
03:25I was with the building supply companies in Maine today.
03:29They have workforce problems.
03:31Everybody's facing workforce problems.
03:33And we always talk about wages.
03:35I think, Admiral, you mentioned wages.
03:36But I believe we're going to have to start talking about things like child care and parking because those are the things that are necessary in order to enable people to get to work.
03:47And I hope the Navy is, and I know they are in some cases, thinking about those kinds of,
03:53that that's a legitimate part of the workforce proposition is these kinds of ancillary benefits, if you will, to attract workers that we need.
04:08Yes, sir.
04:08I would 100% agree with you.
04:10Congress did a great job in the FY23 NDA about talking about workforce incentives and matching with the shipbuilders and our industry partners when we establish contracts.
04:20We've been putting those into some of the most recent shipbuilding contracts.
04:25And many of those are looking at things such as child care, parking, quality of supporting the workforce to then allow them to be able to be the most effective and efficient at their jobs.
04:36And that has to be part of it.
04:39Mr. Chairman, I want to associate myself with Senator Sullivan's comments about tenure tour.
04:44I think of myself, after three years, I barely was learning how this place worked.
04:50And to learn all you learn in three years and then move on, I think that's a discussion that should be had more generally.
04:57I'll never forget interviewing General Dunford when he left Afghanistan and all the knowledge that he had that was walking out the door.
05:06So I think that's something that we ought to be talking about generally, not only in nuclear shipbuilding or shipbuilding generally, but across the board, particularly at these high expertise positions.
05:18Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:19I yield.