Shipbuilders for Collins

At Senator Collins’ request, the Defense Authorization bill for fiscal year 2008 authorizes $2.9 billion for the second (and final) fiscal year of funding for construction of the dual-lead DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyers. This year, Senator Collins worked successfully to include in the Senate version of the Defense Authorization bill the $2.6 billion the Navy had requested to build the third DDG-1000, which also was scheduled to be built at BIW. The House version of the Defense Authorization bill does not include any funding for the DDG-1000 program. The Navy’s decision to curtail the DDG-1000 program is a blow to BIW, and it was triggered by the decision of the House Armed Services Committee to eliminate funding for the DDG-1000 program, which prompted a review within the Department of Defense on the future of the destroyer program.

Senator Collins is deeply concerned by the decreasing size of the U.S. Navy fleet and that funding allocated to shipbuilding in recent years has not been adequate to sustain the number of ships necessary to meet future national security requirements.

Senator Collins continues to press the President and her colleagues in the Senate to increase annual funding for Navy shipbuilding and has sent a number of requests for increased funding to the President . In October 2007, she wrote to the President requesting that he include no less than $20 billion for shipbuilding in his fiscal year 2009 budget. The President’s budget request for fiscal year 2009 includes $16.9 billion for shipbuilding, an increase of $2.5 billion over last year’s request. These funds will help to achieve the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead’s goal of 313 ships by providing funding for one DDG-1000, the Navy’s next generation surface combatant; two littoral combat ships; and two joint high speed vessels, all of which BIW is helping to design and build.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Collins successfully advocated for dual-lead ship DDG-1000 acquisition strategy. The mission of the DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer is to provide credible independent forward presence/deterrence and to operate as an integral part of the Naval, Joint, or Combine Maritime Forces. She is convinced the future stability of our combat lines can be achieved with the DDG-1000. She continues to reiterate to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead the benefits, including both the cost-effectiveness and the much needed capabilities, of the DDG-1000. On January 8, 2008, during Admiral Roughead's visit to BIW at Senator Collins’s request, she was able to convey to Admiral Roughead the gravity of BIW's potential work-gap challenges related to the DDG-1000. As she has told Admiral Roughead on several occasions, she will continue to work closely with the Department of Defense to ensure that it continues to benefit from the contributions that BIW and its skilled and talented employees make by building the best Navy ships in the world.

Senator Collins has consistently opposed a "one-shipyard" proposal for construction of our next generation of surface combatants. She was successful in authoring provisions in the fiscal years 2006 and 2007 defense authorization bills to block the Navy’s ill-conceived one-shipyard strategy. Such a strategy would jeopardize our vital shipbuilding industrial base and leave our shipbuilding capacity vulnerable to terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Our national security demands that a high priority be placed upon expanding and modernizing our naval fleet to counter existing and emerging threats and it is critical that our shipbuilding workforce be stabilized to achieve this goal. We need to have skilled workers in place to ensure the long-term viability of our shipbuilding industrial base, and BIW plays a key role in that effort. Senator Collins will continue to be a strong advocate for the committed workers at BIW.