The United States Navy is still considered the most powerful in the world in regards to fire and tonnage power, but its number of ships has remained behind China's.
When President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he had created a new office in the White House to “resurrect” the US commercial and military naval construction, he raised the long -standing calls to fix the industry in problems he said is vital for national security. His clear call to build more ships “very fast and very soon” arrives at a time of growing strategic competition with China.
“Our naval construction industry has minimized at this time,” said Marines' Commander Eric Smith, to VOA in an exclusive interview in the Pentagon at the end of last year.
The anemic state of naval construction and the maintenance of American ships, and the risks they raise for the Armed Forces, was shared with the VOA through more than a dozen interviews with military officials and the US industry that covered several months and were carried out before Trump's announcement.
The United States Navy is still considered the most powerful in the world in regards to fire and tonnage power, but the number of American ships has remained behind China's. The United States has 296 ships in its fleet, while China is on their way to exceed 400 this year.
Flot in decrease
In spite of the US marine objective to increase the size of its fleet, in recent years the number of ships has been reduced. Last year's budget financed only six new ships of the Navy, while dismantling 15 of the fleet, which represents a net loss of nine. The budget plan of fiscal year 2025 finances six new ships and dismantles 19, which represents a net loss of 13.
The livelihood of the maritime industry as Bae, based in Britain, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) based in the United States and Fairbanks Morse Defense, flows almost exclusively through the US army. Industry leaders say they have the space to build and repair more ships, but that Marina's contracts have been scarce.
“We are operating in half of our capacity,” said Brad Moyer, vice president of Bae Systems Ship Repair. Although the company is one of the largest ship repair in the United States, when VOA visited Bae Norfolk shipyard in Virginia in November, the majority of shipping spaces for ships were empty. The demand for naval construction has fluctuated greatly depending on the budgetary strategies of the Navy, which has created an industrial atmosphere of abundance or shortage that is reducing the supply chain.
“There are thousands and thousands of suppliers who have stopped operating, and it is a real risk,” George Whittier, executive director of Fairbanks Morse Defense told VOA. The company is the largest motion manufacturer in North America and the South and the only one that supplies the largest engines used in the amphibious war wars of the army. Each engine is approximately the size of a small school bus.
“We should have two engines suppliers. But the reality is that, if the Navy is only going to build six ships a year, it is difficult to keep a motor supplier in the business, much less to two. We will have to grow to get out of this, and that is the only way we are going to do it,” Whittier said.
He is not alone. The VOA found multiple examples of companies that were the only provider of specific pieces for ships. The American army and other industry leaders tell them that they are worried that there is no support for the pieces if more companies in the industry break. And the suppliers that have survived say that when the business is not stable, it has been more time to provide the pieces and it costs more to get the materials.
The interim vice head of naval operations, Admiral Jim Kilby, although he advocates a larger fleet, says he has not had the budget to replace all his old ships and submarines, and much less to increase strength.
“When we get a new ship, we will replace an old ship, because that old boat is more expensive and more difficult to maintain,” he said in a recent interview.
Maintenance delays, dismissals
Delays in military contracts and project cancellations have caused dismissals. Although BAE is one of the largest companies in the sector, its west coast shipyard dismissed almost 300 employees in 2023 due to work shortage.
In the city of Norfolk, on the east coast of the United States, the number of navy ships available for repair works was reduced from 44 a decade ago to less than 30 today. About 60 % of the workforce was suspended at that time, officials said.
The result, says General Smith, is an emptied workforce that is not focused on naval construction.
“There is no one who has grown as a naval builder. There are welders, steam installers and electricians, but if there is no stable work for them, they will go to work for Harley-Davidson or Ford Motor Company or Chevy or whoever,” he said.
Whittier and Moyer blame the budgetary process in Congress, together with the way in which the Navy structures the maintenance of their ships.
“The system is broken,” says Whittier.
Congress has not approved a time budget since 2019. When continuous resolutions (CR) are used to finance the government, new projects cannot be initiated. In the case of Fiscal Budget 2024, Congress financed the Government with CR for half a year, which, according to Whittier, gave companies six months to do 12 months of work.
“It is not only a great challenge in how to direct a company, but it is also a great challenge for the Navy to try to find out how maintenance tasks are performed … It is frustrating for all,” said Fairbanks executive director Morse Defense to VOA.
Senator Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agrees that the CRs are bad and added that the only worst would be to close the government.
“People are always going to try to blame someone else, but I would say that we have collectively lost the goal,” he added.
Problems in naval construction
There is also a shortage of qualified workers necessary to keep the naval construction industry afloat.
The Huntington Shipage Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of America, is the only shipyard in the United States that builds the two types of warships of the marina's amphibian war: the assault ships with landing helicopters (LHA) that look like miniportaavions and the docks of the platforms of platforms of platforms of landing (LPD) smaller.
HII also builds destroyers of the Navy and Cúteres of the Coast Guard.
Kari Wilkinson, executive vice president of HII, says that keeping personnel levels around the more than 11,000 workers necessary to build cuters, destroyers and amphibious ships is increasingly difficult, especially in the postpandemic economy.
Just a few years ago, the shipyard could offer much higher wages than other works in the area that do not require a university degree. Now, Wilkinson says they are competing with everyone, from coffee suppliers to fast food restaurants.
“The salary situation has changed. There is no longer that great gap,” he told VOA.
As a result, says Wilkinson, HII now loses workers at approximately twice what it was before the pandemic.
To save money on materials, the Congress authorized the military to buy four amphibians of HII at the same time, a measure known as a block purchase of several ships. Buying them wholesale saved the Pentagon 900 million dollars.
“It was a great victory for us,” said General Smith.
Now, HII must find a way to retain better to your workforce. To make the workplace more attractive, HII has invested in air conditioning and giant curtains to protect workers from the elements, such as the burning Sun of Mississippi. The Pascagoula shipyard hired 7,000 people in the last two years, says Wilkinson, but will need to hire between 1,000 and 2,000 more people each year to complete the orders of new ships.
“We have to find ways to pay people competitive wages that agree with the type of work they are doing,” Kelly told VOA.
Commercial maritime transport
Congress is expected to increase the military budget to increase resources for its naval construction deficit.
But Kelly tells VOA that US commercial maritime transport also needs to be saved.
“We go from 10,000 ships during World War II to 85 today. Therefore, in case of an emergency, in case of a conflict with an almost the same adversary, we are quite limited to send all those supplies, equipment and troops through the ocean,” he said.
The United States builds about five commercial ships every year. China builds more than 1,000.
“They have a shipyard, just a shipyard, which is bigger than all our shipyards together,” the senator told VOA.
In December, Kelly presented bipartisan legislation called Ships For America Act. The bill aims to increase the US commercial fleet in 250 ships in 10 years, which will also increase the military ship supply chain.
“You really wouldn't think that these two things are connected. But they are very closely related,” he said. “Many of the pieces that go on an American aircraft carrier, some of those same pieces for those systems go in merchant ships.”
The bill requires tax incentives, together with rates on the burden that enters the country, to help naval builders increase their capacity.
The provisions of the bill are “totally paid,” Kelly said, without increasing the annual deficit.