CEO: Navy Should Use Smaller Shipyards To Build Ship Components

During World War II, smaller shipyards along the Mississippi River and its tributaries built thousands of support vessels for the U.S. Navy—notably the landing craft used during Operation Overlord to land troops on the beaches of Normandy. President Eisenhower credited the “brown-water Navy” with having a vital role in the operation.

Now the CEO of a defense contractor is suggesting the Navy use that same pipeline to revitalize naval shipbuilding.

George Whittier, CEO of Fairbanks Morse Defense, a naval engine supplier, suggested in a recent article for Forbes that, if the Navy is serious about its plan to expand the fleet to 330 ships by the 2030s and 377 ships by 2045, it needs to seriously address labor issues.

The Shipbuilders Council of America has estimated that approximately 20,000 additional workers are needed to build a 350-ship Navy. The Navy is the only customer for many shipbuilders, and the uncertainty of its funding and appropriations means it is very hard for contractors to plan investments and develop workforces. Potential workers, increasingly in short supply, have many competing job opportunities that are less physically demanding and offer comparable pay.

Whittier suggested that naval contractors use smaller shipyards along the rivers with nonunion labor to make components for naval vessels, then ship those components downriver for assembly.

“[F]rom my observations, the labor challenges experienced at larger shipyards are not shared by small-to-midsized shipyards, and maritime defense suppliers in the Midwest do not tend to face the same labor issues as larger shipyards,” Wittier wrote. “I believe leveraging the Midwest’s underutilized labor resources presents an opportunity to revitalize U.S. shipbuilding. The automotive industry’s decentralized production model can serve as a blueprint for shipbuilding, promising immediate benefits without significant investments. For instance, building components in St. Louis and utilizing the Mississippi River as a transportation corridor to streamline logistics can facilitate the seamless integration of components into shipyards.”

The Forbes article, titled “Shipbuilding labor is available if you look in the right places,” is online at www.forbes.com.