USN and industry tackle shipyard delays
USS Helena, shown here arriving at Norfolk, is an example of US shipyard delays. It remained dockside at Norfolk for an extended period before going to Newport News Shipyard, which is to return the submarine to the USN later in 2021. (Photo: USN/Shayne He
Delays in public and private shipyards are reducing USN operational capabilities, ADM Michael Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, said on 2 August during the annual Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference in Washington.
‘We are getting after delay days,’ he explained, adding that by ‘heavily leveraging analytics’ the Navy had determined that ‘30% of delay days were attributable to poor planning up front: that’s on us’.
Supply chain disruptions had contributed to ‘shared responsibilities’ for these delays, Gilday remarked. ‘If there was any silver lining of COVID, it is in the lifting of the opaque curtain and increasing supply chain
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