The CEO of shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries said the incoming Trump administration is likely more receptive to a plan developed by the Navy and industry to improve shipyard wages and quicken submarine production.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) CEO Chris Kastner told reporters Jan. 9 during a roundtable ahead of the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium that the “most elegant and innovative solution” to getting the next submarines on contract and produced on time is through the Shipyard Accountability and Workforce Support (SAWS) approach.
The Navy and industry developed the idea but did not receive enough support among the Biden administration and lawmakers to move forward for current budget discussions, Kastner said.
SAWS seeks to move money obligated for future submarines and pull it forward to use for current shipyard worker wage shortfalls. Kastner chalked up SAWS not moving forward yet to how “we have a bit of a timing issue with the change in administration. We need to continue those discussions with the exiting administration and the incoming administration on SAWS to get that done.”
Kastner said SAWS “stabilizes the industrial base. It allows for additional investment. It allows for additional wages which will increase the ability to improve attrition. It just solves a lot of significant structural issues within the nuclear shipbuilding business.”
Kastner emphasized one of the company’s focus areas in the new year is getting the next 17 submarines under contract and said they are in discussions with the Navy on how that will get done. This includes the two FY 2024 Virginia-class attack submarines, 10 Block XI SSNs, and five future Columbia-class submarines.
The stopgap budget introduced in December included $5.68 billion to cover shortfalls in the Virginia-class attack submarine program, but did not directly approve of SAWS.
HII is an integrated subcontractor to Los Alamos National Laboratory prime Triad Nuclear Security, providing personnel for nuclear operations and manufacturing at the New Mexico nuclear-weapons design lab.
A version of this story first appeared in Exchange Monitor affiliate publication Defense Daily.
