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The month of December has brought good news for Bath
Iron Works (BIW), one of Maine's largest private
employers. When Congress passed a major defense
spending bill on the 22nd of this month,
it provided crucial funding for our nation’s
shipbuilding accounts and went on record in support
of maintaining our shipbuilding industrial base.
With BIW working on the next generation destroyer,
the DD(X), and the Navy’s newest surface combatant,
the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the Navy and its
sailors can be confident they are getting the best
ships America has to offer.
Having built ships for over 120 years,
BIW has become more than a first-rate builder of
major surface combatants; it has become a Maine
institution. Like many Mainers, I feel a deep sense
of pride in the shipyard, and I am awed by its rich
history and commitment to excellence every time I
visit. When I spoke at the christening of the Aegis
Destroyer FARRAGUT (DDG 99) at BIW in July, those
qualities were in obvious abundance in every single
one of the Maine craftsmen and women of Bath Iron
Works who had forged that remarkable vessel. Time
and again I have heard from Naval officers that they
and their crews alike simply know when they are
serving on a Bath-built ship.
Indeed, when I flew out to visit the USS
Gettysburg in the Persian Gulf following Operation
Desert Fox, there was a deep pride in the voices of
those on board that the GETTYSBURG was born in this
yard. That’s the reputation for superior quality
that precedes BIW across the globe and that imbues
every last weld and rivet in the mighty FARRAGUT.
This sterling reputation makes my work in
Washington easier – speaking with my Senate
colleagues and defense officials, I know that BIW
can rise to any challenge set before it.
The future will bring challenges to BIW, as the
shipyard prepares to lead the way in the design and
construction of two new surface combatants, the DD(X)
and the Littoral Combat Ship. The Defense
Appropriations bill provides $8.8 billion for
shipbuilding, a substantial increase to the $5.6
billion that the administration requested for four
ships. In addition to the $716 million for the DD(X)
program, this legislation includes $50 million for
BIW to modernize DDG destroyers in an effort to
reduce crew size. The bill contains $50 million for
design and advance procurement requirements
associated with the DD(X) destroyer program's second
ship to be constructed at BIW. Senator Collins and
I were also successful in blocking the Navy’s “one
shipyard” strategy for procurement of the DD(X),
which calls for placing all our destroyer-building
capabilities in one-basket with a winner-take-all
competition between the only two shipyards
constructing those destroyers. We will never relent
on this critical point, because America needs our
naval shipyards – and most especially a yard like
Bath Iron Works that produces ships that could not
be better conceived, better equipped, or better
built.
The Defense Appropriations bill also contains $576.4
million for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the
Navy’s newest surface combatant. The Navy announced
in October that it will release $223,262,430 million
to BIW for detail design and production of one LCS.
This is yet another recognition that Bath Iron Works
employs the best surface combatant designers and the
most highly skilled workforce the nation has to
offer.
The Littoral Combat Ship will take
advantage of the newest generation hull forms, and
tailored, modularized combat systems package designs
to enable the LCS to defeat enemy coastal defenses,
including mines, fast swarming small boats, and
submarines, ultimately ensuring maritime access in
any environment. The flexibility and adaptability
in BIW’s Littoral Combat Ship design will give the
Navy the ability to not only support joint
operations like transporting Marine Corps and
special operations units to locations overseas, but
also prosecute missions to protect our homeland,
including drug and illegal alien interdiction. As
the Prime Contractor, BIW is responsible for program
management, technical management, the production
lead and overall responsibility for ship integration
of core ship control and combat systems as well as
the modularized mission packages.
We need a robust Navy to project our nation’s power
where we need it, and Bath Iron Works is at the
forefront of meeting this need. All of us in Maine
and indeed across the country can rest assured that
the men and women of BIW will continue to make their
invaluable contribution to our national security. |
