The Problem

GAO: U.S. Naval Shipyards Lack the Capacity to Conduct Required Maintenance

“The Navy shipyards lack the capacity to conduct required maintenance in the future. We also reported in 2019 that the Naval shipyards cannot support 68 of the 218 – almost a third – of the maintenance periods that aircraft carriers and submarines will require through 2040, due to a lack of dry dock capacity. Specifically, several of the Navy’s 17 dry docks will become obsolete after the Los Angeles-class submarines are retired because they will be too small or lack the appropriate shore-side support for newer classes of submarines. For example, only 14 dry docks can support the early-flight Virginia-class submarines and only 11 dry docks can support the early-flight Virginia-class submarines outfitted with the longer Virginia Payload Module. In addition, no dry docks can currently support repairs to the Ford class aircraft carrier, even though the Navy accepted delivery of the first ship of that class in 2017. Private shipyards have told the Navy that they could have some additional capacity to conduct maintenance, but are hesitant to invest in creating this capacity without more certainty from the Navy.”

Source: GAO-20-257T, Page 13