U.S. Navy Warship Production Stymied By Labor Shortage

The Navy’s ability to build lower-cost warships depends in part on a 25-year-old laborer who previously made parts for garbage trucks.

One of the industry’s chief problems is the difficulty in hiring and retaining laborers for the challenging work of building new ships as graying veterans retire, taking decades of experience with them. I Photo: U.S. Navy Facebook 

Lucas Andreini, a welder at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, is among thousands of young workers who have received employer-sponsored training nationwide as shipyards struggle to hire and retain employees, David Sharp reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The labor shortage is one of many challenges that have led to backlogs in ship production and maintenance as the Navy faces expanding global threats.

Combined with shifting defense priorities, last-minute design changes, and cost overruns, this has put the U.S. behind China in the number of ships at its disposal—and the gap is widening.

Navy shipbuilding is currently in "a terrible state"—the worst in a quarter century, says Eric Labs, a longtime naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. "I feel alarmed," he said.

"I don’t see a fast, easy way to get out of this problem. It’s taken us a long time to get into it."

Marinette Marine is under contract to build six guided-missile frigates—the Navy’s newest surface warships—with options to build four more. But it only has enough workers to produce one frigate a year, according to Labs.

One of the industry’s chief problems is the difficulty in hiring and retaining laborers for the challenging work of building new ships as graying veterans retire, taking decades of experience with them.

Shipyards across the country have created training academies and partnered with technical colleges to provide workers with the skills they need to construct high-tech warships.

Submarine builders and the Navy have formed an alliance to promote manufacturing careers, and shipyards are offering perks to retain workers once they’re hired.