More ships, and make it fast

If the timetable is demanding enough, shipyards could begin to look like they did when they were churning out vessels in World War II.

It has been a portentous week for ships and shipbuilding for the two military services with bases in southeastern Connecticut. Both the Navy and the Coast Guard are telling Congress and their new commander-in-chief that new vessels need to be built and commissioned at a much faster rate.

President Donald Trump appears to be listening, given his statements at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation and earlier this year, when he supported a bigger naval fleet. With all the submarine builders, crews and sub school students in Groton and the Coast Guard officers in training in New London, the government’s budget response will have great impact locally.

For all Americans it is a sobering message. Both services are saying the competition has gotten so fierce that the federal government can’t afford to treat their requests as budgetary business as usual.

While that might sound like a sales pitch, the documentation in a white paper issued this week by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson and recent statements by Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul F. Zukunft sound more like warnings.

Richardson, who reiterated that the Navy needs at least 350 ships, said it should have them in the 2020s, not the 2040s. Citing China and Russia as moving rapidly to build and deploy their navies, he wrote, “Our advantage is shrinking — we must reverse this trend.”

Zukunft, who heard the president say Wednesday in New London that there will be more heavy icebreakers, has compared his fleet of two in service to the Russians’ 40 available for Arctic duty. In the past the other Arctic nations have deferred to the United States’ leadership, in spite of the U.S. not having signed onto the international agreement governing the region’s waters. The Russians have made clear their intention of competing for that leadership position.

The Chief of Naval Operations’ white paper, “The Future Navy,” encompasses the likely movement of people to live in megacities along the coasts and use waterways even more for transportation and sustenance. He describes the growth of the technology and security sectors as “exponential” and involving both risk and potential, and describes the mission as a combination of warfighting, sovereignty on the seas and, when needed, humanitarian aid.

Richardson is a submariner whose command of Submarine Development Squadron 12 and the Atlantic submarine fleet coincided with the construction and launch of the first Virginia-class ships. He calls for manned and unmanned vessels, submarines and surface ships, deepwater and littoral combat ships. He urges conferring with industrial shipbuilders, whom he says could build 29 more ships — and 300 more aircraft — over the next seven years than are currently planned. 2018, he says, will be the key preparation year.

If the Defense Department, Congress and the president agree with even a measure of his and Zukunft’s recommendations, the buildup will be unlike any since the Cold War. And it’s clear that both leaders see the need not just to recoup the time lost in slower-paced shipbuilding but also to move ahead with new design and technology. The president is due to send a detailed budget to Congress next week.

For shipbuilders and planners, including Electric Boat in Groton, that would mean challenges to pick up the pace of design and construction while not sacrificing quality and safety. If the timetable is demanding enough, shipyards could begin to look like they did when they were churning out vessels in World War II.

The admirals’ underlying message is solemn. The warfighting and peacekeeping effects won’t be known until they are tested. In the meanwhile, southeastern Connecticut can expect to be swept along with the changes that affect the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the submarine industry.