U.S. shipbuilders need to embrace digitization, modernization: SecNav
NewsApril 10, 2024
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. The United States' shipbuilding capabilities have "atrophied," and the nation's shipbuilders need to focus on digitization and modernization in order to build ships at a more competitive cost and on schedule, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said Tuesday at the annual Sea-Air-Space exposition.
Del Toro said that while the U.S. Navy's shipyards build the "most capable warships in the world," the shipyards themselves are "decades behind the global technological standard."
"Our Korean and Japanese allies build high-quality ships, including AEGIS destroyers, for a fraction of the cost that we do," he said. "When my team and I went to South Korea, we were floored at the level of digitization and real-time monitoring of shipbuilding progress, with readily available information down to individual pieces of stock materials. Their top executives could tell us—to the day—when ships would be delivered."
Del Toro said the Navy has an opportunity to attract the most advanced shipbuilders in the world to U.S.-owned subsidiaries while investing in domestic commercial shipyards, which will enable the Navy to modernize and expand shipbuilding industrial capacity.
"As the findings of the 45-Day Comprehensive Shipbuilding Review have underscored, too many of our industry partners are behind schedule and over budget on our highest priority programs," he said. "I am pushing our shipbuilding industry to invest in itself to get better, to be technological leaders, and to once again deliver platforms on time and on budget."
