During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) spoke about the United States’ capabilities in replacing damaged or sunk ships.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thanks for your time, gentlemen. How do we boost our forward submarine tender capability?
00:07My understanding is we're pretty low on those right now.
00:10Thanks for the question, sir. Right now we have two. Right now they're helping us,
00:18if you're probably familiar with, with the maintenance that was done over in Australia.
00:22We actually positioned our tender there to help the USS Hawaii who was over there doing
00:25maintenance, USS Minnesota as well. Right now those two tenders are what we are using,
00:30but as part of the budget process, the evaluations ongoing on what's going to take to replace them.
00:35How many do you think we need to be fully operational capable for the whole fleet?
00:39So the answer depends. It depends on where we end up with the fleet, sir,
00:42but I'd have to take that for the record. I'm not the expert on how many we need right now,
00:46so I'd have to take that for the record. Do you have enough?
00:48The two that we have today, they are fully utilized, sir.
00:52Okay. And then, you know, as we explore a near-peer environment, is the Virginia class
01:00and I know the Columbia class as well, is that where we need to be operational-wise,
01:05do you think, as far as capabilities for a near-peer engagement? Or do we think there's a next-gen
01:11investment we need to make for our undersea dominance?
01:15Yes, sir. Thanks for the question. As the PEO for attack submarines, I own not only the Virginia class
01:21construction and sustainment, but also the development of the next-generation SSNX.
01:25The Virginia is an extremely capable platform. There's no peer like it in the world,
01:30so it is executing missions today for national security. However, as we look out in the future
01:34and where the rest of the world is going, we are realizing what we need to add in terms of payload,
01:40speed, stealth, and survivability, and so that's what we're looking for, the next-generation attack submarine.
01:46But our intent is to continue for the 25 shipbuilding plan, continuing to build Virginia class in parallel as well.
01:52And our replacement capability for that, you know, which ties back to our maritime industrial base,
01:58you know, if we enter into a sustained conflict, our ability to replace vessels, should they be attrited?
02:05Do you feel confident we have the ability to have replacement both undersea and for our service vessels?
02:13Great question, sir. For submarines, our four public shipyards are what have the primary capacity to repair our submarines,
02:19as well as our two private shipbuilders. We've been undergoing a material strategy to ensure that we can uplift
02:25and provide working with Matt Sermon's team and the rest of the industrial base to provide the necessary spare parts
02:31that we have on the shelf, so that as we need to do those repairs, they're more available.
02:35We've obviously, as we went down to low-rate production, had less on the shelf,
02:39so now we're in the process of not only improving submarine construction, but our sustainment efforts as well.
02:44I would just briefly add as well on the sustainment side, you know, that the ability of our naval shipyards
02:51and our private shipyards to do quick repairs is a big focus.
02:55I know for Naval Sea Systems Command and other organizations,
02:58basically the ability to respond to battle damage is something that we have significantly increased focus on in recent years.
03:05It's a key part of how we would respond to any conflict.
03:09Yeah, I think my concern is, you know, we've become very comfortable, you know, in the not-near-peer environment
03:16where, you know, we may have damage, but my biggest concern is when it's a near-peer conflict
03:21and we're losing ships, i.e., they're destroyed and sunk, and our ability to replace those at a rate higher than the adversary.
03:28Right now our adversary builds vessels 230 times faster than we do.
03:32So the advantage we had last time we had a big naval war in Westpac was our ability to replace those vessels rapidly.
03:38Now that advantage lies with our adversary.
03:41So two things either have to happen, one or both.
03:44We have to be eminently survivable under any combat conditions, or we have to be able to replace.
03:50And right now we can't replace.
03:52Yes, sir.
03:53And we do need to do both.
03:54Yep.
03:55And then one final question.
03:56I think as we see relatively low-intensity conflict, you know, with our naval combat in the Red Sea,
04:04what have you learned as far as our, I don't think we've had any major vessel damage from that,
04:11but of course we've had magazine replacement, you know, and we've had to keep those ships combat operational.
04:15Are there many lessons that you've gleaned from the fleet now that we've actually seen for the first time in decades
04:20some pretty steady naval combat that we can adopt quickly?
04:23Sir, I will just say, obviously, you know, that's not day-to-day, you know, as an aircraft shipbuilder,
04:32but as a naval officer I've been extremely proud to watch what's happened in the Red Sea.
04:37Our fleet has responded magnificently, you know, getting our assets on station, supporting them in theater has been significant.
04:46I know that, you know, Admiral Cooper and others have talked explicitly about the incredible performance of the crews of our carrier strike groups.
04:55We are learning on the fly.
04:57We are outpacing anyone's ability to keep up with us as we adapt to the tactics and techniques that have been used
05:04and made improvements on the fly to ensure that our entire Navy force out there is able to respond.
05:09And obviously, so far, it's been successful.
05:12And so we have learned a lot, but we have a lot to be proud of as well.
05:17Mr. Blumenthal.
05:19The Guards.
05:20省 film.
05:21Mr. Blumenthal.
05:22The Guards.