Underwater Programs

"I worked as a defense contractor for over three decades. I have seen under the hood, the messy insides of how government procurement works. Actually, it is amazing that ANYTHING gets done. And the fact so many programs end up going over budget and behind schedule is not amazing at all." 

In the business world, if a program which is being worked on is not doing so well, it is sometimes referred to being "under water". That being said, I want to discuss a Navy program which is also "under water" from its performance and is under water as it involves our Virginia class submarine program. How we are managing this new incredible submarine, could be Exhibit "A" on how the federal government can really screw something up.

First a bit of history. The Los Angles class of attack submarines have aged out. A newer, faster, and deadlier replacement was needed. Bring on the Seawolf. This submarine fit the bill. It did everything we wanted it to do - and more. BUT - it cost a mint and took forever to build. So, we were going to build 29 of them, but ended up building only 3. Net result? Instead of a very, very good replacement for the Los Angles class of attack subs, we decided to only build a very good one instead. Thus came the Virginia class of attack sub. 

To meet our current threats, the Navy decided we needed 66 Virginia class attack subs. Currently we have only 23. What are we doing to catch up? To fill the void? Not much. The Navy wants to build two per year (it really should be three), but Biden's budget only has enough money to build one per year. With the growing Indo-Pacific threat from China, we can't wait 40 years to finish building this class out. That is utter madness. 

Some defense experts are saying that the lack of funding is only part of the problem. Even if we had enough money to build three Virginia subs per year, we don't have enough industrial base to do it. This is a huge problem. The same holds true for the new Constellation class frigate. We want to build 20 of these newer, deadlier ships. Where are we now? Running late for the first ship. The lead ship, which is being built in Wisconsin, is already three years late, and will not be delivered until 2029. Considering we think China will make a play for Taiwan in 2027, that is a huge problem.

I worked as a defense contractor for over three decades. I have seen under the hood. I have witnessed the messy insides of how government procurement works. Actually, it is amazing that ANYTHING gets done. And the fact so many programs end up going over budget and behind schedule is not amazing at all. Too many cooks in the kitchen, and too many changes in the recipe. 

Our Defense Department seldom works well. But under Obama and Biden, it works terrible. I mean, when Joe Biden thinks our climate is our biggest enemy when China has gone to town and built the largest Navy in the world - now that is a big a** problem. "Peace through strength" has been replaced with green programs and newer pronouns and DEI training. With open borders and a weakened defense department, we are an open door to bad guys who want to take advantage of our naivete.