Almost all Navy shipbuilding is hopelessly behind schedule
BY STEVE COHEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 05/02/24 8:00 AM ET
The Navy is in trouble.
It has too few ships to do the jobs it is expected to do and not enough money to build new vessels. But it gets worse: It is also handicapped by a civilian ship-building industry that makes promises it knows it cannot keep.
Two weeks ago, the Navy announced that all of its major shipbuilding programs would be delayed — by years. The first of ten new Columbia-class nuclear ballistic submarines is 12 to 16 months behind schedule. The aircraft carrier Enterprise is 18 to 26 months late. The Virginia attack-class submarine is two years behind. And the Navy’s newest class of ships, a guided missile frigate called the Constellation, is already a full three years behind schedule.
Such bad news is usually dribbled out piecemeal or discovered by defense watchers. Instead, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro decided to lance this long-festering boil. He announced that a 45-day internal investigation into warship acquisition revealed that almost all shipbuilding programs are subject to massive delays and cost overruns.
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4624326-almost-all-navy-shipbuilding-is-hopelessly-behind-schedule-as-war-looms/
