USS Massachusetts (SSN-798), the 25th Virginia-class fast attack submarine. under construction at Newport News Shipyard in Virginia in 2022. (Photo courtesy of HII.)
SURFACE NAVY 2025 — The head of shipbuilder HII said he believes the incoming presidential administration may prove more “receptive” to a plan developed by the Navy and industry to boost shipyard wages and accelerate submarine production.
“I think there is an opportunity with the new administration. I think there’s probably more receptivity to innovation in contracting and that could potentially support getting these 17 boats under contract,” Chris Kastner told a group of reporters on Thursday.
He was referring to what has been dubbed the “Shipyard Accountability and Workforce Support” funding plans, nicknamed SAWS. The proposal, which failed to garner traction with the current administration and with lawmakers, reworks certain contract mechanisms for how the Navy pays for submarine and aircraft carrier shipbuilders, essentially letting prime contractors HII and General Dynamics Electric shift long-term funding to the left in order to invest now in raising wages.
That’s important for the shipbuilders, which have struggled mightily with hiring and retaining new workers to to meet increasing production demands from the US Navy, particularly in light of the AUKUS trilateral security agreement.
“[SAWS] is an innovative approach that increase wages, accelerates submarine production [and] reduces the cost through the [future years],” Kastner said. “It really checks all the boxes relative to how you’d want to get boats under contract. So I think there is some — there could potentially be some more receptivity, because it’s a very innovative approach, and it solves a lot of challenges that that we have right now.”
In their most recent defense policy bill, lawmakers admonished the Navy for what they said was a lack of transparency over the plan. The service negotiated SAWS with industry without properly informing lawmakers or the Office of Management and Budget, according to a statement accompanying the bill. But OMB then put forward a $5.7 billion supplemental funding request in November to make up for projected shortfalls in the submarine programs.
The Navy’s “lack of communication” leaves “Congress with few options to address this situation and likely none that will rectify it going forward,” according to lawmakers.
Workforce And Immigration
Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, such as Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., have argued that part of the solution for improving the labor force issues for shipbuilders and other industries will come from immigration reform.
Asked about Kaine’s comments, Kastner said HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., has benefited from workers with green cards.
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“We have some great ship builders in Mississippi that are green card holders [and] that we have some really excellent programs in the community and within the shipyard to have bilingual work constructions, and we have benefited from legal immigration down in Mississippi, and I support increased legal immigration,” he said.
His comments come against a backdrop of debates about what American immigration should look like, with the incoming Trump administration pledging a greater focus on border security and immigration reform. Already there has been one semi-public blow up between factions in the Trump administration, with the more business-oriented forces, such as Elon Musk, reportedly clashing with the more anti-immigration forces.
