Defense Department officials want to scale back purchases of Navy destroyers, it appears, saying the two shipyards that build destroyers — including Bath Iron Works — can't produce the warships fast enough.
In December, Congress passed an $858 billion defense bill that called for purchasing three Arleigh Burke, or DDG 51-class, destroyers in the 2023 fiscal year, and set up a plan that would allow the Navy to buy 15 destroyers over the next five years. Destroyers are the only vessels BIW produces, and the Bath shipbuilder is one of only two contractors that build the ships, along with Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
But the Pentagon's top budget official said it plans to buy only two destroyers in the fiscal year starting in September.
“I'm not hating on DDGs — my only point was that last year Congress added a third and the reason we didn't budget for three is, again, we don't see the yards being able to produce three a year. We don't see them being able to produce two a year,” Mike McCord, the Defense Department's comptroller, said in an interview with an industry publication.
A BIW official said the shipyard relies on a steady flow of work from the Navy to make investments in infrastructure and its workforce, and contracts that call for more ships make both possible.
“A consistent demand signal gives shipyards and suppliers the predictability to make major investments in workforce…
