September 03, 2004

SENATOR COLLINS’ REACTION TO GAO REPORT ON DD(X) DESTROYER

Washington, DC – Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today reacted to a report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that examined the Navy's DD(X) destroyer program.

Senator Collins successfully secured millions of dollars of shipbuilding funds as part of the Defense Appropriations Bill that will benefit Bath Iron Works (BIW), including $88.4 million for accelerated work in 2006 on the DD(X) That funding represents the first installment of BIW's construction of its first DD(X) and will accelerate the start of the construction of the DD(X) in 2006, a full year earlier than the Administration's budget had proposed. Senator Collins'' today released the following statement: "At the request of a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the General Accounting Office has prepared a report on the development of technologies for the DD(X) destroyer. "The DD(X) program is crucial for the future workload at Bath Iron Works. DD(X), by design, will incorporate cutting-edge technology to ensure that our Navy remains the most capable in the world. Of course, there are certain challenges inherent in the process of developing new technologies, that are to be expected and are raised in the report. However, these are far outweighed by the national security requirements that will be fulfilled by bringing the DD(X) destroyers into the fleet as soon as possible. "I will continue to work in the Senate Armed Services Committee to ensure that the DD(X) program is fully funded and that important shipbuilding work that contributes to the defense of our country is performed by the skilled workers at BIW."

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