By Carlo Munoz
A comprehensive, independent review of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, commissioned by Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley is complete with a final version to be submitted to service leaders no later than this week.
“I have got to go through a review of it. There has to be a follow-up, in terms of a series of discussions” with the study leads, Stackley said regarding what steps need to be taken before the sea service can begin implementing recommendations made in the review.
Those discussions would run the gamut from the study’s findings to subsequent policy changes, he added shortly after a Feb. 17 speech at an Aviation Week-sponsored defense technology symposium in Washington.
“This is what [they] found, this is what [they] have stated, this is what [they] have speculated,” he added. “And then I am going to go back to the [study] team, both on the nautical side and the subject matter experts, to get an understanding of it,” Stackley said, characterizing those upcoming internal discussions.
“Our intent is to put the findings to work, but we have to go through the findings first,” he added.
Information collected during the shipyard review was all proprietary. However, the Navy may issue a separate version of the report, redacting all the competition-sensitive information to release to Congress and the public, Stackley said.
The report is the culmination of nearly a year-long evaluation of the shipbuilding industry’s six major shipyards in the continental United States. During that time, the study team–selected by Stackley’s office–reviewed the shipyards’ design and production work, the health of the vendor base, and trends in overhead, productivity, and investment strategies. (Defense Daily, March 8)
The report’s completion coincides with the release of the Navy’s $176.4 billion budget request for FY ’12. The Navy, along with the rest of the services and the Pentagon, submitted its request to Capitol Hill on Feb. 14.
While Stackley’s office has yet to review the entire study or its overall findings, the Navy acquisition chief has already requested information on the study’s preliminary results. That data, he added, “is informing some of the discussions we are having right now on contract negotiations of major programs.”
However, Stackley declined to go into detail on what programs were being impacted by the review data, or whether one of the negotiations underway was focused on Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] decision to divest its shipbuilding interests and spin them off into a separate entity.
“These are close-held discussions and we need to keep then close hold for now,” Stackley said.