While the General Staff of the US Navy tempers the objective of 355 combat ships announced by President Trump, by postponing it beyond 2030, He also expressed his concern about the state of health shipyards. According to Vice Admiral Thomas Moore, commander of the Naval Sea System command, it will be impossible to build this fleet without a healthy shipbuilding industry. However, the repeated changes of course concerning naval programs over the past 30 years have largely undermined the organization and production capacity of these shipyards.
Let us recall that in fact, the US Navy will have started and then abandoned major programs three times in recent years: the Sea attack submarine Wolf abandoned after 3 units built, the heavy destroyer Zumwalt also abandoned after 3 units, and the Littoral Combat Ships, having to be produced in more than 60 units, finally abandoned before having built around twenty. Under these conditions, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to maintain industrial capacities and peak performance.
It should be noted that in France, and more broadly in Europe, shipyards will not have been treated differently, and would also benefit from the consolidation/stabilization/ramp-up phase to recover their full industrial potential. In the case of Naval Group, ex DCNS, none of the last 10 major programs will have respected the initial commitments, the most notable being the FREMM going from 17 units to 6, the Light Furtive Frigates from 12 to 5, the horizon frigates from 4 to 2, the SSN Rubis from 8 to 6 and the BPC Mistral from 4 to 2, then finally 3. Difficult to size your industrial tool and your personnel when government commitments vary so much....