Congratulations to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for the On-Time Completion of Maintenance on USS California (SSN 781)

USS California Departs Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

USS California (SSN 781), the eighth submarine in the Virginia Class, was returned to the fleet on June 15th upon the successful, record-breaking performance of the ship’s first EDSRA at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. This marks the first time that a Naval Shipyard has successfully completed an initial Virginia Class EDSRA on-time, an achievement made even more impressive because of the COVID 19 pandemic. Congratulations to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and to the officers and crew of USS California on this significant achievement. Despite this significant achievement, however, the overall submarine maintenance crisis remains unresolved.

Over the last decade the nation’s 4 Naval Shipyards have been unable to complete the required maintenance on the US Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines, with an average, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis, of more than 0.6 aircraft carriers and more than 3.4 submarines always unexpectedly sidelined in delayed maintenance.[1] GAO and other third-party entities such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Navy itself, and the Heritage Foundation have extensively documented this current US Navy aircraft carrier and submarine maintenance crisis. This crisis is described in more detail, with extensive reference to these third-party analyses,on our website. The first 5 Virginia Class submarines, as documented in a CBO analysis, experienced significant delays and cost growth in the performance of their initial shipyard maintenance periods. The graphical presentation below was produced from the data in Table 1 of this CBO analysis:[2]

It is, then, a significant achievement to complete the first shipyard period for USS California, the eighth Virginia Class submarine, on time, particularly when the shipyard period included the COVID 19 pandemic period. Congratulations is appropriate for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where California was maintained, and for the officers and crew of this great warship.

Despite this significant achievement, however, the submarine force is still beset with maintenance delays, which, according to VADM Daryl Caudle, is the “number one challenge” for the submarine force.[3] While notable as a single positive data point, this single success story is not evidence that the fundamental underlying problem has been resolved. The Naval Shipyard industrial enterprise still lacks the capacity and capability to properly conduct the routine scheduled maintenance on all of the US Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines. This is evidenced in the US Navy’s own Long Range Shipbuilding Plan for FY22, which states, “To meet the demand for additional submarines, industrial base capacity must be expanded.”[4]

Specific evidence for this conclusion, particularly focused on the shipyard maintenance aspect of providing “additional submarines,” is the long-overdue, still-in-progress shipyard maintenance periods on USS Helena (SSN 725), USS Columbus (SSN 762) and USS Boise (SSN 764), and, perhaps, other submarines.

Helena was due to complete shipyard maintenance in April 2017 and now has it’s 4th scheduled completion date (July 22nd) this year. Will it actually be completed by July 22nd? Time will tell.

Columbus was due to complete shipyard maintenance in August 2019 and is now scheduled for completion December 31, 2022, almost 3 ½ years late. .
Boise has been parked since 2016 – 5 long years – waiting to start its 2-year scheduled shipyard maintenance period. While Boise is now finally in the shipyard, its initial completion schedule is not until May, 2023, although Bartlett Maritime Corporation has been led to believe that this is not a “firm” schedule. Most likely, Boise will go more than a decade between deployments.

The schedule status of other submarines either in or waiting for shipyard maintenance has not been made public, but Bartlett Maritime Corporation, based upon best available information, concludes that it is highly likely that at least one other submarine is currently waiting to enter a shipyard maintenance period or is already in a shipyard maintenance period and its completion schedule has been extended beyond its original scheduled completion date.

A better approach to submarine maintenance – providing more maintenance capacity and capability – is required. This better approach must be achievable in the current environment, be affordable and be effective. The good news is that the Bartlett Maritime Plan™, described on our website, is both available and meets these challenging criteria.

The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ is a public-private-partnership (P3) which can both provide the required new ship maintenance capacity and capability while accessing an entirely new labor pool to staff this new capacity and capability. This new capacity and capability will include 2 new VPM-Virginia-capable drydocks in a totally enclosed drydock production facility and a new equipment depot to maintain and repair key ship components and equipment. Better, still, no new legislation is required to implement this plan which will also result in an annual savings of more than $100 million per year while also creating more than 41,000 jobs.