Navy Maintenance: Fewer Shipyards May Be Needed as Ship Repair Requirements Decline
Abstract
The Navy is responsible for establishing and maintaining a cost- effective and responsive industrial base, both government and privately owned, to support peacetime requirements and respond to wartime ship repair requirements. Because of the projected decline in the size of the Navy fleet and the likelihood of significant excess capacity in Navy and private shipyards, GAO assessed the Navy's efforts to determine and maintain the ship repair industrial base. The United States has over 500 shipyards of all sizes. For purposes of mobilizing for war or other national emergencies, the ship repair industrial base includes 8 U.S. public shipyards that are owned and operated by the Navy, 3 overseas ship repair facilities that are owned and operated by the Navy, and 108 private shipyards that meet the Maritime Administration's mobilization base criteria of being large enough to build or repair ships. The Department of Defense (DOD) generally has shifted its planning focus from a single global scenario to an array of regional scenarios. In recognition of decreased peacetime ship repair requirements in future years, the Navy plans to reduce the size of the public shipyard work force by about one-third by fiscal year 1995. However, the shipyards have been directed to continue to base their mobilization planning on a protracted, worldwide war because DOD and Navy headquarters have not provided planning guidance for regional threat scenarios.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 18, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA257502
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office