WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Navy may not continue to put its Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships into the dry-dock every time they go into planned maintenance, as one way of dealing with a looming shortfalls in dry-dock availability and private sector maintenance capacity. Vice Adm. Tom Moore, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, told USNI News that the Independence variants, built at Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., have to be dry-docked for all planned maintenance events, partly due to a requirement to inspect the condition of the hull. Most of the Navy’s ships are made of steel. The Independence variants’ hulls are made of aluminum. The Navy decided early to gather data through hull inspections at each planned maintenance event. “Part of the dry-docking piece was to do an underwater hull inspection,” Moore said. There is no exact maintenance schedule, but the flag officers believed the dry-docking requirement could go from once every three years to once every five-to-six years, if the engineering study in the fall supported using the dry-dock every other maintenance availability. Additionally, the private sector has about 15,750 personnel in the workforce today and can only meet about 75 percent of the Navy’s ship maintenance needs, according to Moore. By FY 2020, the Navy will need the private sector workforce to be about 19,750. Many of the yards aren’t growing their workforce because the Navy’s maintenance budget can be unpredictable. Bringing in more employees would meet the Navy’s need, but it would require a large, long-term cost for companies if the Navy doesn’t follow through and fund all the availabilities. (Source: (USNI News 06/21/18)
Shipbuilding and maritime related news from the Central Gulf Coast region
