The Tyranny of Shipyard Cost-Plus Contracting

As a naval shipyard commander, my mandate from Navy leadership is straightforward: return warships to the fleet as quickly as possible.

Neither my shipyard nor many other public and private shipyards are consistently fulfilling that mission.

Public shipyard availabilities — the scheduled periods during which nuclear-powered warships are taken out of operational service for maintenance, repair, or modernization — are often delayed well beyond their original timelines.

A recent Government Accountability Office report highlighted that over the past 10 years, maintenance delays for attack submarines have resulted in 15,000 lost operational days and an estimated $3.4 billion in costs.

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