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i 

97–195 2016

[H.A.S.C. No. 114–53] 

PUBLIC SHIPYARDS’ ROLE IN MEETING 

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

HEARING HELD 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 
(II) 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS 

ROBERT J. WITTMAN, Virginia, Chairman 

ROB BISHOP, Utah 

VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri 

AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia 

ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York 

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey 

MIKE ROGERS, Alabama 

CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York 

STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi 

RICHARD B. NUGENT, Florida 

BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri 

MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam 

SUSAN A. DAVIS, California 

JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois 

SCOTT H. PETERS, California 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

BETO O’ROURKE, Texas 

RUBEN GALLEGO, Arizona 

CRAIG COLLIER, Professional Staff Member 

VICKIE PLUNKETT, Professional Staff Member 

KATHERINE REMBER, Clerk 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS 

Bordallo, Hon. Madeleine Z., a Delegate from Guam, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Readiness ...................................................................................... 2 

Wittman, Hon. Robert J., a Representative from Virginia, Chairman, Subcommittee on Readiness ...................................................................................... 1 

WITNESSES 

Whitney, RADM Mark R., USN, Deputy Commander, Logistics, Maintenance 

and Industrial Operations, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA 04) ...... 2 

APPENDIX 

PREPARED STATEMENTS: 

Whitney, RADM Mark R. ................................................................................ 20 

Wittman, Hon. Robert J. .................................................................................. 19 

DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD: 

NAVSEA Brief on Hampton Roads Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Industrial Base ....................................................................................................... 31 

WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING THE HEARING: 

Ms. Bordallo ...................................................................................................... 45 

Mr. Courtney ..................................................................................................... 45 

Mr. Wittman ..................................................................................................... 45 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING: 

Ms. Bordallo ...................................................................................................... 49 

(1) 

PUBLIC SHIPYARDS’ ROLE IN MEETING 

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS, 

Washington, DC, Thursday, October 1, 2015. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 8:00 a.m., in room 

2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Robert J. Wittman 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT J. WITTMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM VIRGINIA, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE 

ON READINESS 

Mr. WITTMAN. I call to order the Subcommittee on Readiness. I 

want to welcome everyone this morning, but first I want to thank 

Rear Admiral Mark R. Whitney, Deputy Commander, Logistics, 

Maintenance and Industrial Operations, Naval Sea Systems Command [NAVSEA]. Thank you for being with us today. 

The Navy’s four public shipyards, Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, Portsmouth Naval 

Shipyard in Maine, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, face a number of challenges in completing ship maintenance on time and within budget. 

Wartime requirements, as we know, over the past decade have 

worsened the condition of our fleet, causing ships to require more 

maintenance than expected upon arrival at the shipyard. 

A few weeks ago, we received testimony about the Navy’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan [O–FRP], which, among other things, 

seeks to provide a more sustainable force generation model and 

more predictability for ship maintenance. 

Today I look forward to hearing about the shipyards’ role in 

meeting the Navy’s operational requirements and how they are responding to the maintenance and repair challenges that recent operations have put upon the fleet. 

Now I turn to the ranking member, Ms. Bordallo, for any opening remarks she may have. And again, we thank her for her leadership in HASC [House Armed Services Committee] and here in the 

subcommittee. 

Madeleine. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Wittman can be found in the Appendix on page 19.] 
2 

STATEMENT OF HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, A DELEGATE 

FROM GUAM, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS 

Ms. BORDALLO. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you for arranging this hearing on our public shipyards. 

Admiral Whitney, thank you for being here today so early. 

I very much appreciate what you are doing to try to maintain 

and enhance the readiness of our fleet. I am hopeful that the O– 

FRP and your plans with the shipyards can be implemented in a 

timely manner and will not suffer under a continuing resolution 

[CR] government shutdown, or sequestration-level budgets. 

I am particularly interested in hearing what steps the Navy is 

taking to bring shipyard staffing up to the levels needed to increase 

productivity. How are you getting 4,500 new employees up to speed 

in critical technical areas? 

And I also would like to hear specifics regarding infrastructure 

improvements for the public shipyards, including where the challenges lie, what is being done to meet those challenges, and how 

well funded the Navy’s recapitalization plan is. 

We must reset our readiness that has been degraded by years of 

constant engagement and high operational tempo, and ensure a 

stable and a predictable funding stream is available for these programs. 

And I know the chairman and my colleagues on this subcommittee share that goal. And we look forward to hearing how 

you plan to ensure our readiness goals are met through engaging 

our public and private shipyards, and intermediate maintenance 

repair facilities. 

And I yield back, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo. 

Admiral Whitney, we now go to you for an opening statement. 

STATEMENT OF RADM MARK R. WHITNEY, USN, DEPUTY COMMANDER, LOGISTICS, MAINTENANCE AND INDUSTRIAL OPERATIONS, NAVAL SEA SYSTEMS COMMAND (NAVSEA 04) 

Admiral WHITNEY. Good morning. Chairman Wittman, Ranking 

Member Bordallo, and distinguished members of the House Armed 

Services Readiness Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to 

testify about the naval shipyards’ critical role in meeting the 

Navy’s operational requirements. 

I am privileged to have worked in and around the naval shipyards for over 20 years. This includes the honor of having been the 

commander of a naval shipyard. 

Today I am before you representing the more than 33,000 civilian and military dedicated and patriotic professionals who give 

their life every day to serve our country and fix our ships. 

These heroes come to work, put on a hard hat and safety shoes, 

and stand ready to service our great Navy, any time, any place, to 

ensure our sailors are always ready to stand the watch. 

Today I am prepared to discuss the challenges that this workforce faces to improve performance and reduce the maintenance 

backlogs at the naval shipyards that have prevented us from get-
3 

ting back to the fleet the ships that they urgently need, as well as 

discuss the initiatives that we are taking to address those challenges. 

The workforce at the naval shipyard is engaged. They are tackling the challenges and embracing the improvement initiatives 

every single day, and they work towards one goal—the successful 

delivery of ships back to the fleet. 

The four public shipyards—Portsmouth, Norfolk, Puget Sound, 

and Pearl Harbor—are owned and funded by the fleets and operated by the Naval Sea Systems Command. 

The naval shipyards ensure that the Navy has the essential and 

organic capability to perform cradle-to-grave service for our nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and submarines. The workforce provides the services that are vital to sustain the fleet’s operational 

availability and ensure mission success. 

The naval shipyards’ performance has been challenged in the 

past 3 years due to increased workload that is coupled by an increased number of new and less experienced workers. 

In fiscal year 2014, the naval shipyards executed 4.7 million 

man-days of workload. This workload has continued to increase 

through fiscal year 2015 and will increase through fiscal year 2017, 

likely peaking in fiscal year 2018. This increase has been caused, 

in part, by the high operational tempo of the fleet and extended deployments that has been described in previous testimony. 

The primary solution is to resolve the workload-to-workforce imbalance by increasing the workforce to the right level so that we 

can have a fighting chance to get the required maintenance completed on time and on budget. 

The solution set also includes training and developing the new 

workforce and its management team, as well as diligently working 

on process improvement. We will achieve success by utilizing our 

apprentice programs and other workforce development efforts in 

conjunction with productivity improvement initiatives. 

The challenge of the last 2 years has been hiring to an appropriate level across the naval shipyards. In fiscal year 2013, the 

naval shipyards had about 29,000 full-time equivalents. With the 

impact of sequestration, a hiring freeze, and increased workload, 

accelerated hiring has been necessary. 

The fiscal year 2016 budget supports an increase in the shipyard 

workforce to achieve 33,500 direct and indirect full-time equivalents. In 2014, this number, including private sector partner assistants, was determined to be the appropriate size workforce needed 

to execute the increasing workload and reset the workload-to-workforce imbalance. 

Shipyard availability performance, warfighter readiness, and 

fleet forward-deployed presence are directly linked to the capabilities provided by the efficient operation of the naval shipyard facilities. 

Naval Sea Systems Command continues to prioritize the 

sustainment and recapitalization of the naval shipyards’ infrastructure. 

Investments continue to focus on mission-critical facilities inside 

the controlled industrial area, which primarily include production 

shops, piers, wharfs, dry docks, and supporting utility systems. 
4 

Naval Sea Systems Command is focused on the naval shipyards’ 

information technology systems, as well. These systems are outdated and a challenge to support as we push to new cybersecurity 

standards. 

Naval Sea Systems Command is implementing solutions to the 

maintenance information systems to address critical cybersecurity 

vulnerabilities and increase workforce productivity. 

Overall, facility investments are prioritized to address the most 

critical capability, safety, productivity deficiencies associated with 

these mission-critical facilities. 

The hardworking, dedicated professionals across the naval shipyards stand with me to tackle these challenges face-on. Our focus 

each and every day is to get our Navy ships back to sea when the 

fleet needs them in support of O–FRP. 

Again, thank you for inviting me here today before this committee, and I thank you for your continued and crucial support of 

the naval shipyards. I will be glad to take any questions that you 

have. 

[The prepared statement of Admiral Whitney can be found in the 

Appendix on page 20.] 

Mr. WITTMAN. Admiral Whitney, thank you. I am going to come 

to my questions as other members have had their chances. We 

have a few members that have to leave a little bit earlier, so I will 

go now to Ms. Bordallo. 

Ms. BORDALLO. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Admiral Whitney, how do you envision the role of shipyards like 

the one on Guam, which is more of a hybrid between a public and 

private yard? We essentially have established a government-owned 

contractor-operated construct. So how does this contribute to supporting the O–FRP and the backlog in ship maintenance? 

Admiral WHITNEY. The role of the naval shipyards’ engagement 

with private sector partners is critical to the success of the shipyards—naval shipyards being able to execute their workload. 

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 

both do maintenance on the island of Guam in support of the 

homeported 688 submarines as well as the SSGNs [guided-missile 

nuclear submarines] that come in for voyage repair periods. 

So the partnership is critical. And so we need to ensure that 

when, as we will likely discuss later, the role and the visibility of 

the total workload, we just need to make sure that that partnership is strong. 

Ms. BORDALLO. So you don’t think that it will add to the backlog, 

that it would—— 

Admiral WHITNEY. No, ma’am. 

Ms. BORDALLO. All right. 

Admiral Whitney, how do maintenance schedules for ships that 

support the carrier and expeditionary strike groups fit into the O– 

FRP concept? And isn’t it just as important that the maintenance 

for those ships is done in a timely and cost-efficient manner to ensure the readiness of the strike groups? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, ma’am. So the focus of O–FRP is that 

carrier strike group [CSG]. And the naval shipyard piece of that 
5 

equation is to ensure that the aircraft carriers are delivered on 

time. 

The coordination, then, therefore, is to make sure, within the 

port that we have visibility of the workload and we are partnering 

in making sure that we are doing this in an aligned manner. 

So in order for the total strike group to be successful, we all need 

to be sharing and aligned in what that workload is and how it is 

going to be executed. The naval shipyard piece of that obviously 

therefore is the carrier and the carrier has to deliver on time. 

Ms. BORDALLO. And I have a third question, Mr. Chairman, that 

is all I have. 

Much of our maintenance backlog has been driven by sequesterlevel budgeting. Now your future planning with O–FRP revolves 

around funding being restored to the program at the President’s 

budget levels. What would the impact be if you were faced with another round of sequester-level funding? 

And additionally, what are the restraints of your funding if it 

comes from OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] instead of 

base funding? 

Admiral WHITNEY. So the impact on the naval shipyards to sequester-level funding would be a repeat of what we experienced 

previously. We would face likely hiring freezes, we would reduce 

overtime, we would take risk on material procurements—those 

things that would ultimately end up in delays to availabilities inside the naval shipyards. 

Ms. BORDALLO. And maintenance? 

Admiral WHITNEY. And maintenance, yes, ma’am. The backlog of 

maintenance would again continue to accrue. So it—we have articulated that before and I would see no reason why the impacts 

would not be the same. 

Ms. BORDALLO. All right, thank you. And I yield back. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo. 

Dr. Wenstrup, any questions, please? 

Dr. WENSTRUP. I do have one quick question. And may not even 

be appropriate to answer it in this setting, to be honest with you. 

I think you probably, sir, have a great understanding of what readiness means. And what you would feel would be 100 percent readiness within your jurisdiction. 

And like I said, it may not be appropriate to answer in this setting, but I would be curious to know what percentage of readiness 

you feel we are at right now. 

Admiral WHITNEY. That would be a hard one to answer. I would 

take that as a lookup and for us as Navy, too to come back and 

give you a specific answer on that. 

Dr. WENSTRUP. I think it is very clear it is not 100 percent right 

now. Would you agree with that, sir? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. 

Dr. WENSTRUP. When you consider you have a backlog of maintenance, how can we be 100 percent ready? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir, agreed. 

Dr. WENSTRUP. Thank you very much. I appreciate your being 

here this morning and for your service. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Dr. Wenstrup. 

We will now go to Mr. Peters. 
6 

Mr. PETERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Actually Ms. Bordallo asked my question about the sequester 

and coming up on this month and just want to express my concern 

that we continue to work with you and the committee on coming 

up with a strategy—I think O–FRP is a good start—to deal with 

a tough budget situation. 

But we need to get back to a situation where we are doing regular budgets over more than a year, so that there is more dependability and more ability to plan. I want you to know that I have 

that in mind. Thank you for being with us today. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Mr. Peters. 

Mrs. Hartzler. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Admiral. 

Just wondering when you talked about the workforce and how 

you are plussing up the number of people that you are hiring to 

make up for the backlog. So what is the shipyards doing to address 

the relative inexperience of this workforce? 

Admiral WHITNEY. So, ma’am, that is a great question. So first 

off is a recognition that the new folks that we are hiring, there is 

a generational difference in the way that that workforce learns. 

And so what we are addressing is different ways to train and develop. And there is a subtle distinction between the two. 

And where we are at is, whereas in the past the way that the 

workforce would have learned is more over the shoulder, down on 

the deck learning how to do the work with an experienced graybeard kind of right behind him helping him, what we are doing is 

we are creating work environments mock-ups like—as like to the 

real situation as we possibly can, where it is actually safe to fail. 

Learn through repetition. Learn by doing. Learn by actually 

them doing the work in a learning environment, and then going 

down and doing the work. 

And so it is more hands-on, it is more up front, it is an investment taking them kind of off-line into almost like a boot-camp kind 

of environment. And we are calling those learning centers. 

And each shipyard is sharing lessons learned across the four of 

them on how they are developing, how they are training these—in 

these learning centers. And we are seeing positive results. 

There are very clear results in each of the shipyards, bright spots 

as I call them, where the new workforce, when they actually go 

down and execute work, is executing at decreased durations on the 

job, high quality, and safety is phenomenal. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. I am a former vocational teacher and I am a big 

believer in career and technical education. So in the schools around 

these shipyards, are there any specific programs that help, that 

students can, in high school, take that will help feed into that? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, ma’am, absolutely. We have got great 

partnerships in each of the locations with vocational and technical 

schools. 

The apprentice programs that we have, have great relationships 

with local community colleges and we are reaching way down into 

the high school, looking for that vocational kind of aptitude for 

folks to come on into the shipyards. 

For years and years and years, one of the anecdotes was, hey, if 

you don’t do well in high school, you are going to end up in that 
7 

shipyard. We have completely turned that around to that is a place 

where you want to go. And the skill sets that we need are evident 

wherever we are at. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. Absolutely. So recently two private shipyards in 

the Hampton Roads area, Newport News Shipbuilding and BAE 

Systems announced plans to lay off 1,500 and 650 employees respectively. Are these layoffs related to the Navy’s plan to hire an 

additional 9,000 employees? 

Admiral WHITNEY. No, ma’am. This is workload related, workload related in each of those specific companies. But we are collaborating. 

And so the visibility of the workload in the port is something 

that we have been working on relatively newly, but definitely diligently over the course of the last several months. 

And there are many places where we need the help, so when we 

were hiring up and are hiring up to that 33,500, that was not to 

the peak. We aimed below the peak because on the backside of the 

peak we wanted to be in control of our decline in workload. 

And so there was an element of that peak that we needed and 

still need to continue to work with the private partners on the 

three availabilities that are going into those—into the private sector and for us, on the aircraft carriers, we have got several HII 

[Huntington Ingalls Industries] folks working right now on the 

Bush at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and will on the Truman. And also 

out West, helping Puget Sound on the USS Nimitz right now. 

So we have got more work to do, but we are not going to get that 

workload peak done without private sector help. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. I only have about 30 seconds left, but I am just 

curious, of all the ships, what is the main area of maintenance? 

What is it that takes the most time and is the Navy looking at 

ways to decrease the maintenance in that area? So is it engine 

overhaul or is it—what would you say is the main highest maintenance area on a ship when it is—after it has been deployed? 

Admiral WHITNEY. That is actually very hard to nail down. But 

each availability has what we call a critical and controlling path. 

And predominantly it is in, I will call it a high-skill area. It typically is something that is typically worn from wear. And it varies. 

So it is kind of hard to answer that question, but we definitely 

know, as we develop the work package, to what is going to get 

worked, we very clearly know what that critical path work is going 

to be. 

Mrs. HARTZLER. Thank you. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Ma’am. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Mrs. Hartzler. 

Admiral, the Navy has come to this subcommittee before, and 

you briefed us about your efforts to hire back workers that were 

lost during earlier rounds of the sequester. 

Can you give us an update on where you are in that process? Or 

are you moving your goals in hiring people back? And as you spoke 

of, you are trying to find that equilibrium to where we are not on 

that roller coaster ride of up and down on workforce changes within the public yards. Can you reflect a little bit on that for us? 
8 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. So, we are, as we ended this fiscal 

year, we were within 65 people of our goal. And as far as I am concerned, we met our goal. 

So, we will be on track relatively easily to meet our goal in fiscal 

year 2016, which was to get to that 33,500 by the middle of fiscal 

year 2016, to gives ourselves a little bit more lead angle on the 

training, and that includes the folks that we lost due to attrition 

during 2013 in the hiring freeze. 

So, we are back on track with that. 

Mr. WITTMAN. We know that you all play out the different scenarios that you face with funding. Obviously, we know the scenarios if sequester comes back. 

But give us your perspective of where we are right now, operating under a CR through December 11th. And then, give us a scenario, too, if the Congress in its infinite wisdom decides to operate 

the remaining portion of this year under CR? 

Can you give us those two scenarios, what it means for you operating under CR to December 11th, and what it would mean to you 

to operate for a CR for the remaining portion of the budget year? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. So, operating under a CR for the first 

3 months of the year is, I will say it is manageable. 

We have good sight visibility of the workload, and what it is 

going to take to execute that. If we go beyond the December timeframe, then it becomes much more of a challenge balancing the risk 

associated with the hiring, with overtime, with material procurements as we progress through the rest of the year. 

Again, also with an eye towards what is at us in 2017. So, we 

are constantly evaluating how we are going to execute the year. 

One of the fundamental things that we have changed within the 

last 5 years is, we go through a very purposeful deep dive into 

what is about to happen in the future execution year. 

And we align between NAVSEA as the operator and the fleet on 

an availability by availability level of detail, and issue a letter to 

the shipyards with what we call execution guidance. 

Anything that kind of causes risk, therefore, in that execution 

guidance is going to be a challenge, and likely ends up being as a 

bow wave. And also, a piece of that bow wave, not just the work, 

but it is the things that are going to be a degradation in performance. 

And so, we just—we are okay with the—up to December, but it 

is going to get very risky after that. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you. You had reflected a little bit on trying 

to manage workloads. And we know there is, I think a lot of capacity, not only in our public yards but also in our private yards, in 

trying to make sure that we understand where those strengths are, 

so we can utilize those to keep off of the roller coaster ride of 

troughs and peaks with management of workload in both the public 

and private sector. 

Can you give us a little reflection on what you are doing in looking at the total workforce management across both the private 

yards and public yards? 

Admiral WHITNEY. That is a great question. So, the—I will answer it in two different ways. 
9 

One is for the four public shipyards, we have very good tools that 

give us site visibility of our workload. 

On a quarterly basis, we sit down, and you may have heard the 

term, one shipyard, one nuclear shipyard, used before. So, on a 

quarterly basis, we sit down with that workload and share that 

with our private sector partners, predominately Electric Boat and 

Huntington Ingalls. And they come to the table with what is on 

their plate, as well. 

And so, we do get down to trade skill level specific discussions 

on looking over the future, and what is the opportunity for some 

workload balancing and sharing. 

We have also gone through a very purposeful exercise over the 

course of the last year, to understand qualifications. So, when 

somebody is qualified as a welder here, what does qualified for a 

welder mean, here? 

So, we have rectified some of the deltas such that, when somebody shows up, there is not a requalification to our standards 

thing, there is a—here some interesting and critical safety and environmental issues that might be specific to a location. 

But then your tool bag and tool belt, you are down working on 

the job. So, that is within the naval shipyards, and part of that is 

the visibility of the workload. 

We are evolving into that with the private sector in the surface 

ship world, as well. And so, that is more work to follow, but that 

is—we are using the same model. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Very good. I want to finish with one question, to 

play out a number of different scenarios. 

As we talked about, the Navy has looked at how to understand 

the industrial base, the capacity there. But also things to better 

manage the workload. 

And we have been through these periods before, where we hit 

some bumps in the road, and that uncertainty creates issues with 

our workforce. 

Has the Navy thought of some of these scenarios? And I want to 

play a couple out. 

One is, is bringing forward-deployed ships back to the United 

States to have work done here, for those maintenance availabilities 

that may exceed 6 months of longer-term work to be brought back 

stateside. 

Using available congressionally approved appropriations to expedite the current cruiser modernization process to kind of, again, 

create some workload there, where you can manage those peaks 

and troughs. 

Looking at implementing public-private partnerships in the long 

term, to do non-core work on our fleet. Also, you could outsource 

lower-priority work, such as the work on Los Angeles-class submarines, out to the private yards. Again, kind of manage that 

workload, that normally processes through our public yards. 

And then looking at allocating all of your available appropriations, including your base and overseas contingency operation 

funds, or appropriations, to mitigate these workflow fluctuations 

that we have seen here recently. 
10 

Can you kind of give me your perspective on some of those, those 

scenarios, as how you would see those as a part of your management process? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Sir, I believe we use some of those flexibilities 

already, and obviously, there is probably more room to use some of 

those. 

Within the constraints of, I will say some existing policies—Navy 

policies. But—like, for example, the outsourcing of lower-priority 

work within the naval shipyards. When we have site visibility of 

where that kind of, I will say that cut line of resources is, that is 

absolutely one of the levers that we go off and try and pull. 

As far as some of the other examples that you got, I think I 

would take that as a look-up for us to come back and maybe give 

you some more detail. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 45.] 

Mr. WITTMAN. That would be great. If you could take those scenarios for the record so we can just play those out. And in closing 

this, I would also like to have from you, for the record, if there are 

things that the Navy needs administratively, or statutorily from 

Congress to facilitate greater flexibility in helping you in managing 

the workload, but also managing workforce in both the public and 

private side, we would like to know that, too, because there may 

be some things that we can do in next year’s NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] to help facilitate what you can do to better 

manage that workload and workforce. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. We will take that one. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 45.] 

Mr. WITTMAN. Very good. Now go to Mr. Courtney. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And good to see you 

again, Admiral. 

Just to follow up a couple of the comments that the chairman 

made. Yes, again, it looks like you have made some impressive 

progress in terms of boosting the hires in the last year or so. 

Secretary Perez of the U.S. Department of Labor was up in Groton last summer, where, again, there is nothing as dramatic as 

what is going on with the public yards, but clearly, you know, the 

need—what, if nothing else, the sort of a generational refresh is 

sort of got the apprenticeship programs sort of open for business 

again. 

You know, one of the apprenticeship programs we visited was at 

the welding area, you know, you have actually two generations of 

welders that were sort of doing the presentation. One who was in 

his 60s, another who was his son, who was actually in his sort of 

late 30s, early 40s. 

And they were talking about, sort of—you know, as you, I think 

I heard you as I just came in, is you know, what is a welder? 

Again, you can hire someone and put them in that job classification. But what we heard that day was that, you know, really— 

aside from sort of the initial apprenticeship stint, I mean, the fact 

of the matter is, is you need somebody looking over the shoulder 

of that new person for some period of time. 
11 

I mean, a year, 2 years or so. And then, they can sort of start 

doing sort of basic welds, but in terms of a real—sort of master 

welder, I mean, you are talking years before you really have sort 

of—got that person up to a qualification. 

And frankly, there is a lot of risk in terms of, you know, retention. Because there is—you know, with advanced manufacturing 

just sort of taking off in aerospace, you know, you name it. The fact 

of the matter is, is that, you know, sort of holding on to these folks 

really makes sort of the initial numbers that we see in today’s testimony, I mean, really are just sort of the beginning of the challenge for, you know, having a workforce that is ready to take on 

these challenges. 

And I was sort of wondering, I mean, have you sort of built in, 

sort of the fact that there is going to be attrition over the time period? And frankly, that there is still a gap in terms of timing to 

get people really up to doing these. 

You don’t want mistakes. You know better than anybody in 

terms of submarines or surface ships in terms of bad welds, or people who, you know, really aren’t ready for the job. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. Extremely salient point. 

So, one of the things that we are doing differently, acknowledging some of that generational difference in the learning is—I 

will call it a deep immersion. We talked about it a little bit earlier. 

A place where it is safe to fail. 

So, welding is a great example. Where what we would have done 

previously is a little bit more of that over-the-shoulder learn-asyou-go, we can’t afford years for somebody to get that proficient. 

The sense of urgency behind what the workload is in front of us, 

we have to accelerate as much as we can the proficiency and experience of the new workforce that is coming in. 

One of the places that we are doing that is what we are calling 

learning cells, learning centers. It is a off the ship, it is—the best 

example is actually up at Portsmouth where we took whole tanks 

from a submarine that Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was dismantling, put them out at Portsmouth, and are using them as real, live 

examples of blasting and painting. 

So new employees are coming in and in real submarine tanks, in 

real, cramped submarine tanks, learning over and over and over 

again all of the techniques necessary to be extremely proficient, 

way quicker than what we would have trained them to before. 

Welding is another example. So a combination of virtual welding, 

which can get somebody who comes off the street and has no idea 

how to weld, but they can learn pretty quickly with a virtual welder. And then transition into a learning center, where they weld upside down, using a mirror, over and over and over again, in a safeto-fail environment that is not causing rework down on the deck 

plate. 

So it is an opportunity for us to bring left the timeline for proficiency, but it is somewhat trade-specific. But that is the journey 

that we are on right now, and it is a recognition that we have to 

make that investment quickly because one of the things that will 

keep somebody on the job and in the service is job satisfaction. 
12 

That connection to patriotism of getting the job and the job satisfaction of doing it right the first time, that is an intangible that we 

are counting on. 

The other part is acknowledging that as we are hiring, we do see 

the backside of the peak, and so we are watching that attrition 

very, very carefully. We have got very good data of the folks that 

are in the two different government retirement systems. We kind 

of know what the sweet spot is. And we are also having the very 

purposeful conversations with the workforce so that we know kind 

of when they are planning on leaving. 

So we are dialing it in very, very carefully to make sure that we 

are staying in control of it. 

Mr. COURTNEY. So again, I think it is good that you are trying 

to do things, you know, differently because of the challenges. As we 

saw that day with the Secretary. It is just not, again, giving someone a job classification. 

So I was also struck by Admiral McCoy, when he used to testify 

before us on these types of issues, he used to call a nuclear welder 

the equivalent of a brain surgeon in terms of, you know, what it 

takes to be in that totally qualified area. 

And again, brain surgeons don’t start going to the operating 

table in a year or two. I mean, it is a process that takes a very 

long period of time. 

You know, Mr. Wittman asked the question about using the private yards to—for some of the Los Angeles-class work. I guess the 

other question is that when—under Admiral McCoy, there was a 

lot of discussion again about dips and using road work as a way 

of again protecting the workforce. 

Can you give us some numbers in terms of what the road work, 

you know, programs look like these—today? 

Admiral WHITNEY. So the road work, you are talking about 

the—— 

Mr. COURTNEY. Again, so—for example, if there is a layoff at 

Huntington or BAE or Electric Boat, you know, whether or not, 

given the fact that you need this workforce, I mean, whether you 

are using road work as a way to fill that? And clearly that has been 

done in the past. I am just sort of wondering where we are in 

terms of the numbers today. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. So I can get back to you with some 

specific numbers, but we are absolutely we are absolutely relying 

and using right now road work, specifically on the aircraft carriers 

and to some degree on the submarines. 

But more so right now, one, because we have got—so we have got 

one, we have got three aircraft carriers in execution right now, all 

at the same time, about to add a fourth with the start of Ronald 

Reagan over in Japan. That is a big chunk of aircraft carrier. At 

the same time, Huntington Ingalls is stepping into their valley. 

Then it becomes a timing to make sure that we can align the 

timing right and we are working on that every day. So I can take 

for specifically the numbers for you. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 45.] 

Mr. COURTNEY. Please. I mean, again, because it was a pretty 

successful approach a few years ago, and again, Admiral McCoy, to 
13 

quote him, talked about sort of the notion of a one-shipyard approach because—and I think Roscoe Bartlett used to say it is like 

having six horses and food for five sometimes in terms of trying to 

satisfy the industrial base or keep people working and trying to 

balance that. I think it is a pretty successful strategy. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Yes, sir. I agree with that. 

Mr. COURTNEY. Yes, so we would look forward to those numbers. 

I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Courtney. 

Ms. Bordallo. 

Ms. BORDALLO. Thank you. Thank you. I have just one question, 

Admiral, it has to do with the MSC [Military Sealift Command] 

ships, which are normally in our shipyard. Where does the maintenance of the MSC ships fall into the O–FRP process? And how does 

any delay in maintenance of the MSC ships affect the carrier strike 

group readiness? 

Admiral WHITNEY. Ma’am, that is a little bit outside of my swim 

lane. I would be glad to take that one for you and we will get you 

back a specific answer. 

[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix on 

page 45.] 

Ms. BORDALLO. Thank you very much, Admiral. And I yield back, 

Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo. 

Mrs. Hartzler, do you have any more questions? Any members 

have any additional questions? 

All right. Admiral Whitney, thank you, thank you so much. We 

appreciate that. We have given you a few questions for the record, 

too—for the record, so we can clarify in our minds some things that 

are going on. Please let us know, too, if there is anything that we 

can do specifically to give you the necessary flexibility in managing 

both workload and workforce. 

So we look forward to working with you to make sure we enable 

you to make sure our ships get in and get maintained so they can 

get back to sea with our great sailors on board, and do the great 

job for our Nation and make sure that our sailors and their families are happy with their deployments. 

Admiral WHITNEY. Thank you, sir. Honored to be here. 

Mr. WITTMAN. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 8:38 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

A P P E N D I X 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

(19) 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

(31) 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING 

THE HEARING 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

(45) 

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WITTMAN 

Admiral WHITNEY. A copy of the brief that was given to HASC Readiness Subcommittee Staff, SASC Seapower Subcommittee staff and the Virginia House Delegation is attached. [See Appendix page 31.] 

Navy remains engaged with Norfolk Ship Repair leadership and Hampton Roads 

delegation regarding options for workload balancing and level loading the port. The 

Navy is commencing efforts to fill near term valleys in workload as much as possible. [See page 10.] 

Admiral WHITNEY. NAVSEA believes that the existing statutes related to depotlevel maintenance and repair allow sufficient flexibility in managing the workload 

and the workforce of the public shipyards. [See page 10.] 

RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. BORDALLO 

Admiral WHITNEY. The fiscal year 2015 (FY15) workload of 5.0 million mandays 

is forecast to increase to 5.4 million mandays in FY18. Mitigation actions accomplished as part of the programming process indicate that workload will exceed the 

efficient range in FY17 and FY18. This will require more contracting actions to balance the workload-to-workforce mismatch. [See page 13.] 

RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. COURTNEY 

Admiral WHITNEY. One of the planned outcomes of O–FRP is that MSC will fully 

support O–FRP implementation by providing fully capable and modernized ships 

available to support fleet combat and peacetime requirements within approved 

spending authority. We will closely synchronize MSC maintenance schedules to support CSG readiness through development and analysis of Master O–FRP Production 

Plans (9-year schedules) for both CSGs and MSC. [See page 12.] 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING 

OCTOBER 1, 2015 

(49) 

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. BORDALLO 

Ms. BORDALLO. What percentage of ship maintenance availabilities at the public 

shipyards were completed on time and within budget in fiscal year 2015? What is 

the outlook for fiscal year 2016? 

Admiral WHITNEY. For the four public Naval Shipyards in FY15, 22 availabilities 

were completed, of which 6 (27.3%) were on time, and 1 (4.5%) was at budget. For 

perspective, 10 of those 22 availabilities that completed in FY15 were within 10% 

of CNO schedule durations and 4 of those 22 availabilities completed within 10% 

of budgeted mandays. 

In FY16, 13 availabilities are scheduled to complete, of which 6 (46.2%) are tracking to their CNO scheduled completion date and 2 (15.4%) are tracking to their 

budgeted mandays. 

The Naval Shipyard performance has been challenged in the past three years due 

to increased workload and an increased number of new and less experienced workers. In FY14, the Naval Shipyards executed 4.7 million mandays of workload. This 

workload continues to increase in FY15 through FY17 (PB17 workload is at 5.3 million mandays), and will likely peak in FY18. This increase has been caused in part 

from the high operational tempo of the Fleet and extended deployments. 

Starting in FY15, the Naval Shipyards have been hiring up to a planned level of 

33,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees by the end of FY 16. Given that FY15 

and FY16 are building years for matching the Naval Shipyard workforce to workload, the Navy expects on-time delivery to improve as the recently hired workers 

are trained and integrated into the experienced workforce. 

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