Amid a spate of bad press for the US Navy, a major crisis of cost overruns for the force’s submarine building program is the latest sign of the decline of the United States as a military power.
“In a word, these programs are in crisis,” said Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Thursday in response to news that the Navy’s submarine program is some $17 billion over budget, with construction facing delays of up to three years.
“Without exception they are falling behind,” he continued. “Increasingly they are over budget. Absent today's intervention I have zero confidence that Navy shipbuilding will get back on track.”
Calvert excoriated Navy leadership, alleging it had “withheld information on costs and delays” and claiming its “plans to address” the shipbuilding crisis “are primarily aspirational.” The lawmaker noted the service is committed to producing two so-called Virginia-class submarines per year but has struggled to build an average of 1.3 yearly.
The Navy has blamed the lingering effects of Covid-19 and its pursuant disruption of US manufacturing for the crisis, with officials claiming the impacts of the pandemic left companies “reticent to invest.” The US military industrial complex has been highly privatized in recent decades, with observers blaming profit-seeking contractors for massive cost overruns and a chronic shortage of equipment. Earlier this year it was revealed that Russia is producing three times more artillery shells than the US and Europe combined amid the Western-backed Ukraine proxy war.
Calvert claimed Navy officials had worked to hide its crisis from lawmakers and the American public.
“It’s clear that the Navy and shipbuilders have known about this shortfall for at least 18 months,” said the lawmaker. “Assurances of how long these discussions have been going on do not reassure me, when Congress was notified just two weeks ago.”
“Today, we will have a frank conversation about the Navy’s program management failures, flawed use of metrics, and lack of transparency. For too long, this committee has been put in a position of asking what the Navy is hiding behind the curtain — it’s time to pull down the curtain altogether… The lack of transparency from the Navy, the failure of shipbuilders to urgently resolve issues, and the resulting inability of Congress to conduct informed analysis is a toxic cycle that we must break.”
The production of submarines, which the United States manufactures for its own military as well as allied forces in the UK and Australia, is thought to be essential for an anticipated war with China in the Pacific region.
As China's naval fleet expands, the United States is facing new setbacks in the construction of submarines and warships, a European media outlet reported earlier this year.
The US Defense Department consistently fails attempted audits conducted by Congress, with trillions of dollars in assets unaccounted for. The failure of Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia, even as it enjoys the assistance of Western military planners and is pumped full of NATO’s most technologically-advanced weaponry, has proven to be a major embarrassment, calling the United States’ presumed military superiority into question.