Los Angeles Chapter virtual meeting on March 30
U.S. Navy shipbuilding is expected to reach construction levels not seen since the Cold War era given stated force-level goals of a 355-ship fleet (up to ~500 including unmanned), compared to the 296 in-service vessels today. Increased importance on naval operations in the face of near-peer tensions, most notably China and Russia, driving a structural shift in fleet architecture, with an emphasis on Distributed Maritime Operations and subsurface warfare superiority, driving a redistribution of the fleet’s overall composition – smaller proportion of larger ships (e.g., large surface combatants), a larger proportion of smaller ships (e.g., amphibious, logistics/support, frigates) and a third tier of optionally/unmanned surface vessels – and a prioritization of submarine recapitalization (e.g., Columba-class).
Significant Congressional support for shipbuilding reflected by the fact that appropriated funds have consistently outpaced Administration’s requests over the past decade. However, despite such support, force level goal attainment requires future funding to exceed peak historical appropriation levels seen during the 1980s, a continued reduction in aging vessel decommissioning efforts and associated sustainment funding, and finally, significant investment towards eliminating manpower limitations.
All of this in the backdrop of a diminishing supplier base – ~50% of supply chain labor and ~70% of suppliers lost since the 1980s – and pronounced maintenance delays exceeding 2,000 days – reflecting dry dock and labor capacity constraints, dry dock/homeporting mismatches and underinvestment at both public and private yards.
Please join us online on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, 8:00–9:00am Pacific Time when Andrei Grskovic, Partner, and Mark Mangano, Principal, both of the Defense & Government Services at Oliver Wyman Aerospace will explore the future direction of the fleet, funding outlook and risks, market capacity, prevailing trends and associated implications on the incumbent and emerging shipyards, supply base and sustainment vendors.
The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members For more information and to register to attend the meeting go to https://adflamar22.eventbrite.com/.
Information about joining The A&D Forum is at https://aerospacedefenseforum.org.
The Los Angeles Chapter of The Aerospace & Defense Forum is hosted by Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Mitchell and sponsored by Chubb, Bolton & Company Insurance Brokers, Moss Adams, and Fifth Third Bank.
