By The Associated Press

A U.S. Senate hearing on the Navy’s winner-take-all strategy for destroyer construction bolstered efforts to provide more funding for shipbuilding and to prevent the Pentagon from shifting the DD(X) program to a single yard, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says.

“We’re pursuing all fronts,” said Collins, R-Maine, noting that the Senate Appropriations Committee already has agreed to block the single-source strategy as part of a pending bill for $81 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officials representing the two yards that build Navy destroyers – Maine’s Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi – told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on seapower Tuesday that it would be a mistake to shift all production to one contractor.

But the chief of naval operations, Adm. Vernon Clark, said that having two shipyards building destroyers leads to expensive “apportionment” rather than cost-saving competition.

In announcing his intention to decide on a single shipbuilder, Navy Secretary Gordon England had estimated that the current system adds $300 million to the cost of each destroyer.

Clark agreed with Collins and other lawmakers that more predictable funding and spreading out costs – “rather than coming up with the money for each ship in a single year” – would help the industry.

His preference would be $12 billion per year, a significant increase over the $8.6 billion allocated this year for new construction and the $5.6 billion proposed for the year starting Oct. 1.

Ronald O’Rourke, a defense specialist with the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, said going to a single yard for destroyer construction could have “very serious” consequences for the yard that loses the competition.

“Theoretical scenarios for the yard under such circumstances could include closure and liquidation of the yard, the mothballing’ of the yard or some portion of it, or reorienting the yard,” he said.

Ingalls won the competition to design the next generation DD(X) destroyer, sparking concerns that Ingalls could also win the competition to build the ships.

Michael Toner, executive vice president for marine systems of General Dynamics Corp., the parent of BIW, criticized the prospect of consolidating shipbuilding at a single yard.

“General Dynamics finds the Navy’s recent announcement of a winner-take-all competition at this late stage in the program, after over seven years of development, to be confusing, contradictory and very disturbing,” Toner said.

He said shipbuilders depend on predictable funding and an opportunity for a decent return on investment.

“If such conditions are not met, shipyards close,” Toner said.

A top official from Ingalls’ parent, Philip Dur, president of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, echoed the concerns.

“The issue at hand has to do with retaining the essential capability the nation must have to build the ships essential to its future security,” Dur said. “The current path we are on puts this capability at serious risk.”

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