BATH, Maine - The top admiral in charge of Navy ship construction says 300 ships will be needed to meet future needs around the world, and that Bath Iron Works is crucial to achieving that goal. But Vice Adm. William Hilarides, who was on hand for a change of command ceremony in Bath today, acknowledges that the Navy is being asked to do more with less.
Hilarides, who serves as commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command says a 300-ship Navy will require significant shipbuilding capacity in the future. "A strong shipbuilding industry involves a number of shipbuilders," he says. "We have been at four now for a number of years, four big yards. There is always downward pressure on these things."
The Navy, like the rest of the Defense Department, is facing budget constraints, with across-the-board cuts kicking in again next year under what’s called the sequestration process. Independent Sen. Angus King, of Maine, serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The real problem is the sequester and the effect on shipbuilding," King says, "and that goes for submarines as well as surface ships. And that is a problem we just have to solve."
Military analysts say that if the current budget law is left as is, the Navy will be under heavy pressure to reduce the number of ships being built. Bryan Clark is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington D.C.- based think tank.
"There is going to be increased costs for personnel and for readiness over the next 10 years," Clark says, "so there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be taking money away from the Navy’s shipbuilding accounts, or at least preventing putting more money into it."
Vice Adm. Hilarides says he is well aware of the budget pressures that will be facing his command, but he says that does not diminish the need for warships. "It is up to us, the Navy, to make the case that we need those destroyers," he says. "And I think we will be able to make that case because, if you look at what they are doing around the world today, whether it be in the Black Sea, Persian Gulf or the Mediterranean, those ships are highly valued."
BIW is building all of the most advanced type of destroyer, the Zumwalt class. But, because of cost, the plan to build 32 of these destroyers now calls for just three. Originally estimated at about $3.5 billion each, the added cost of research and development expenses doubled the price of the lead ship to $7 billion. Congress responded by deciding to build more of the Burke class of destroyers, the DDG-51’s that were first commissioned in 1991.
Analyst Bryan Clark says they will be the bread and butter for BIW for the foreseeable future. "We will see DDG-51’s, flight threes, continue to be constructed all the way into the 2030’s, definitely," he says. "The question will be how many."
And that's important for BIW, says Sen. King, because if the number of ships being built is too low, there will not be enough work to keep all the shipyards busy, and their workers employed. Admiral Hilarides says that is also a worry of the Navy because the demand for surface warships has not diminished.
"What we have traditionally called a cruiser or a destroyer, the sort of 8,000, 9,000 tons up to 15,000, up to 12,000 to 15,000 tons," Hilarides says. "The demand for those has always been about a 100 of those across the Navy."
He does not see that need change, even as the Navy builds other warships. Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic and budgetary Assessments agrees. He says BIW may face a slowdown of work in the next decade, but if the Navy is to meet the responsibilities given it by Congress, the shipyard should have plenty of work coming its way.
