SHIP DESIGN AND PRODUCTION FACILITIES: COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF ACHIEVING A 355-SHIP FLEET

The current goal for the United States Navy is to achieve a 355-ship fleet by 2034 and 500 ships by 2045, according to the March 2020 Report to Congress on the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for Fiscal Year 2020. To achieve this goal, ship service lives will need to be extended and shipbuilding will need to occur. Given the current budgetary constraint, this project explores the cost effectiveness between four approaches to vessel construction: 1) U.S. naval designs built at U.S. yards, 2) commercial and foreign designs built at U.S. yards, 3) foreign designs built at partner foreign yards, and 4) commercial U.S. designs built at foreign yards. The cost effectiveness analysis took into account the need to preserve the U.S. naval industrial base as well as economic benefits and other advantages and disadvantages of U.S. shipbuilding as opposed to foreign shipbuilding for various design types. Based on the Constellation Class Frigate design, analysis indicates that the United States produces warships at a greater cost than its fellow European NATO member states. The United States is also less productive and maintains a lower capacity to produce warships. This analysis provides reasonable evidence to shift production of warships overseas, but it must be done in a balanced way that maximizes the cost-savings and allows the United States to continue to lead the way in next-generation technology.
Lieutenant, United States Navy
Lieutenant, United States Navy
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