New GAO Report of Interest on Navy Shipbuilding
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this week issued a new report of interest to the defense acquisition workforce entitled “GAO-22-104655 Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Supervisors of Shipbuilding Responsibility Could Help Improve Program Outcomes”.
According to the GAO, “…the Navy often accepts delivery of incomplete ships after significant delays in construction and considerable cost growth. At major shipyards, the Navy has an onsite organization—the Supervisors of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair—that's responsible for overseeing construction and managing shipbuilding contracts. The Supervisors' expertise provides foresight into shipbuilding problems, but we found the Navy isn't taking full advantage of it. Among other things, we recommended ensuring that the Supervisors are consistently represented earlier in the shipbuilding process, starting before contracts are awarded.”
Also of note was an observation from the GAO auditors, who stated in the final report, “...we found that the Navy largely limits the SUPSHIPs’ involvement in key decision-making activities for shipbuilding programs prior to contract awards. NAVSEA Instruction 5450.36C outlining the SUPSHIPs’ mission, functions, and tasks states that their role effectively begins after contracts are awarded. As a result, the SUPSHIPs have a limited role in the Navy’s overall program deliberations prior to contract awards for ship construction. As described in our prior work on shipbuilding practices, the Navy makes key decisions during the pre-contract award phase that determine a ship’s performance requirements and the systems needed to meet those requirements, as well as inform early-stage design work.37 These decisions on requirements and design can have enduring effects on ship reliability, availability, and maintainability—all with linkages to ship quality. We previously found (in an earlier report entitled GAO-20-2 Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Focus on Sustainment Early in the Acquisition Process Could Save Billions) that these three factors require early consideration in the Navy’s acquisition process to help ensure longer term ship sustainability and affordability.”
According to the GAO, “…the Navy often accepts delivery of incomplete ships after significant delays in construction and considerable cost growth. At major shipyards, the Navy has an onsite organization—the Supervisors of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair—that's responsible for overseeing construction and managing shipbuilding contracts. The Supervisors' expertise provides foresight into shipbuilding problems, but we found the Navy isn't taking full advantage of it. Among other things, we recommended ensuring that the Supervisors are consistently represented earlier in the shipbuilding process, starting before contracts are awarded.”
Also of note was an observation from the GAO auditors, who stated in the final report, “...we found that the Navy largely limits the SUPSHIPs’ involvement in key decision-making activities for shipbuilding programs prior to contract awards. NAVSEA Instruction 5450.36C outlining the SUPSHIPs’ mission, functions, and tasks states that their role effectively begins after contracts are awarded. As a result, the SUPSHIPs have a limited role in the Navy’s overall program deliberations prior to contract awards for ship construction. As described in our prior work on shipbuilding practices, the Navy makes key decisions during the pre-contract award phase that determine a ship’s performance requirements and the systems needed to meet those requirements, as well as inform early-stage design work.37 These decisions on requirements and design can have enduring effects on ship reliability, availability, and maintainability—all with linkages to ship quality. We previously found (in an earlier report entitled GAO-20-2 Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Focus on Sustainment Early in the Acquisition Process Could Save Billions) that these three factors require early consideration in the Navy’s acquisition process to help ensure longer term ship sustainability and affordability.”