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Washington, DC – Senator Susan Collins today, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned leaders of the U.S. Navy about shipbuilding issues that are important to Maine , particularly to Bath Iron Works (BIW) and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY). Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Michael Mullen testified at today’s hearing that focused on the Administration’s request for the Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Budget. Senator Collins is the only member of the Maine Congressional Delegation to serve on an Armed Services Committee.
Senator Collins urged Secretary Winter and Admiral Mullen to support a budget that includes $13.5 billion to expand the naval fleet, based on their consensus 313-ship plan, noting that lack of predictability in funding and unequivocal rates of production are drivers in cost growth. She also pressed them about the need to ensure a more predictable and stable long-term strategy for shipyard workload, including repair work at PNSY and the construction of DD(X) destroyers at BIW. The Secretary and Admiral agreed with Senator Collins that shipyards must be able to rely on a predictable stream of long-term funding in order to lower procurement and production costs and to retain a skilled workforce. Secretary Winter also said the allocation of shipbuilding work must be done through a more structured decision making process that includes improved communications with the shipyards so they can properly anticipate their future workloads and plan accordingly.
“This kind of reliability in terms of future workload, funding, and a skilled workforce is also critical for the country to sustain the capability to meet future threats,” pointed out Senator Collins.
Senator Collins stressed the importance of the DD(X) program to national defense. “We must always ensure that our investments in cutting edge technology add necessary value to our defense capability and strength. In the case of the DD(X), a lot of the increased technologies are absolutely essential – increased firepower, a stealthier design, and a dramatically reduced crew size, which in the long run reduces the life cycle cost.” Admiral Mullen agreed, saying, “I think DD(X) is a tremendously important and critical investment for future ships, not just destroyers, but for future ships in the U.S. Navy.” He said investment in the DD(X) provides a base for research and development in the shipbuilding world that the Navy did not have ten years ago.