Problems in DoD shipbuilding industry

Over the past two decades, according to a newly released unclassified version of a Defense Department report, the U.S. shipbuilding industry has had to contract work to overseas companies because, since 2000, the industrial base has lost more than 20,500 U.S.-based manufacturing firms. As those firms shuttered, work they had once performed was sent overseas creating and is indicative of the financial pressures squeezing the entire defense industrial base. Firms involved in manufacturing shipbuilding components were among the hardest hit by this shift in the global marketplace, the report states. Across the shipbuilding sector, manufacturers and suppliers have left the industry, limiting competition. In some cases, the Navy is forced to rely on a single and sole source supplier for critical components. (Source: USNI News 10/08/18. Copy of report within link)