Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used the backdrop of the future submarine Oklahoma to tell a crowd of shipbuilders Monday that the Trump administration was focused on cost overruns and building ships more quickly at Newport News Shipbuilding.
“We're holding your leadership accountable,” he said. “We're holding your leadership(’s) feet to the fire. Their jobs are on the line to ensure that you can deliver what America needs.”
The secretary also toured the future Ford-class carrier John F. Kennedy, which was supposed to be delivered to the Navy in 2025, but is not scheduled for sea trials until later this year.
After the event, Huntington Ingalls Industries CEO and president Chris Kastner responded with a statement: “Over the past year, in partnership with our government customers, we’ve taken steps to measurably increase our hiring, grow our retention, and most importantly, improve proficiency levels within our workforce. These increases are a meaningful increase in shipbuilding throughput.”
An HII official says the company has invested in facilities like extending the building being used to build the new Virginia-class submarine Oklahoma. Between Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat in Connecticut, the two yards delivered a pair of new submarines in 2025. That’s in line with the Navy’s goal, but below the 2.3 submarines a year that will be required by the AUKUS partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom.
Newport News was the first stop on what the Defense Department is calling an “Arsenal of Freedom” tour of defense-related manufacturing sites around the country. The Trump administration wants to ramp up shipbuilding in the United States, while driving down costs.
During the announcement of plans for a new battleship program in December, President Donald Trump singled out cost over-runs on the USS Gerald R. Ford, which ballooned to $13 billion during the first Trump administration. Newport News Shipbuilding is the only American shipyard set up to build Ford-class aircraft carriers.
The administration’s proposed new battleship would be three times larger than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and require more than double the crew. Last week, the Congressional Research Service released an estimate that a new battleship could also cost $15 billion. The ship is not estimated to be ready for bid for roughly a decade.
During his remarks, Hegseth referenced the weekend raid where the U.S. took into custody former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, but added few details. Several Norfolk-based ships have been involved in Operation Southern Spear since the fall and Hegseth said deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean would continue.
