The Navy is struggling to build ships : NPR
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Cynthia Cook of the Center for International and Strategic Studies about why U.S. shipbuilding has become so difficult lately.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Last week, the Trump administration announced a new class of warships that will be named after the current president.
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JOHN PHELAN: The future Trump-class battleship, the USS Defiant, will be the largest, deadliest, most versatile and most beautiful warship in the world’s oceans.
KELLY: That’s Secretary of the Navy John Phelan. And the timing here is interesting because lately the Navy has been struggling to build ships. Entire lines of warships have been scrapped in recent years. Last March, the Government Accountability Office said most Navy ships under construction starting in 2024 had been delayed. For what? We’re going to submit this to Cynthia Cook, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who just co-wrote a big report on this. Cynthia Cook, welcome.
CYNTHIA COOK: Hello. THANKS.
KELLY: Start with your first reaction to this announcement – this new golden fleet, as it’s called – of Trump-class warships.
COOK: My first reaction was that this fits with President Trump’s long-standing interest in shipbuilding and revitalizing the shipbuilding industrial base. The shipbuilding industrial base faces long-standing challenges and, in our view, it will take presidential attention at the highest levels to address some of these long-standing challenges.
KELLY: Well, and I want to touch on the challenges in a second, but this class of warships, President Trump, his administration, says they will be 100 times more powerful than any previous battleship. A hundred times?
COOK: I like the focus on shipbuilding more than the plans for this particular ship. Designing any new class of ship is a long and complex undertaking. It’s just going to take a very, very long time to design a ship, design a new supply chain, hire workers, find dock space. I don’t think investing in this area will be easy. I don’t think it’s going to be quick and I think it’s going to be very, very expensive.
KELLY: So take a step back and give me the big picture. I mentioned that the Navy has been struggling to build ships for years. For what?
COOK: Well, the Navy itself doesn’t build ships. He has entrepreneurs. Ships are being built more slowly than we would like for several reasons. And actually, one of the biggest reasons is labor challenges. A shipyard executive told me he would love to have a second shift, but he just can’t find the labor. During the pandemic, a number of workers have retired and so the workforce is relatively new or, as it is called, a green workforce.
KELLY: I guess I’m wondering why it’s important that the United States can build ships? For example, in the age of drone warfare and cyberwarfare, why does it matter if the United States has fewer ships in its navy than in the past?
COOK: That’s a great question because we think these ships contribute to combat, but they also have many other uses. They help create a presence abroad. They contribute to deterrence. They allow maritime control. They ensure that commercial ships can use different sea routes. They offer humanitarian aid. U.S. Navy sailors go to ports and represent the United States everywhere they go.
KELLY: Help me understand two of the things you just told us. First, you think – whether or not this new Trump-class warship that they just announced is a realistic proposition or not – that the president’s interest in shipbuilding could devote attention to this issue, could be helpful. It’s on one side. On the other hand, some of the challenges you describe don’t seem directly within the president’s control, such as the lack of skilled labor to build the ships.
COOK: That’s exactly why part of this is a challenge. We have some great ships in production right now. We could strengthen our shipbuilding industrial base by contracting for 10 ships at a time over a period of years, rather than one or two ships at a time. So it’s not that building ships is a bad idea. It’s just that I wonder if building an entirely new class of ship will require funds that could be used for other capabilities that would more effectively contribute to deterrence.
KELLY: Cynthia Cook, of the Center for the Industrial Base at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thank you for sharing your expertise.
COOK: Thank you very much.
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