New project to ‘mass produce’ parts for US nuclear submarines

The US Navy has partnered with Hadrian to build the first of three “advanced manufacturing” sites in Alabama to mass produce parts for submarines.

It is hoped that this strategic move will spread out responsibility for building submarines, taking the burden off of the few overworked American shipyards – in Connecticut and Virginia – capable of building nuclear-powered submarines.

About $900m from Navy funds will combine with $1.5bn in private capital, for a total $2.4bn to finance this public-private manufacturing project.

Slump in US submarine production

The Navy Secretary, John C. Phelan, said the three facilities are designed to “address the most critical bottlenecks” in the naval industrial base. In the last several years, experts searching for ways to rejig the US submarine sector have warned that the country does not have decades rebuild, alluding to the dilemma as an “inescapable, urgent problem.”

While their hull count is still ahead, for now, the production rate of US submarines has reduced to unsustainable levels compared to that of its Great Power rival, China, whose unrivalled manufacturing base is anticipated to overtake the US in the near future.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, China, for the first time, has launched more nuclear submarines in the 2021-25 period than the United States, and with a greater combined tonnage.

Meanwhile, the actual production rate of the Virginia-class fast attack nuclear-powered submarines has never reached 2.0 boats per year, according to the Congressional Research Service. Since 2022, the rate has been limited to 1.1 to 1.2 boats per year.

Playing catch-up

In the past, industry have implemented some measures to keep submarine production to a tolerable rate. For example, deploying a rotational workforce of skilled labourers in support of Navy shipbuilding and repair projects.

Meanwhile, politicians – from Biden’s Navy Secretary to incumbent US President Donald Trump – have successively criticised primes for requesting government investment in capacity while hauling record profits.

However, now there is a focus on expanding the construction of Virginia-class fast attack and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines – both of which are nuclear powered – through “advanced manufacturing” techniques according to the Navy release announcing the new site in Alabama on 20 March.

‘Mass produce’ parts for SSNs, SSBNs

Hadrian intends to provide a factories-as-a-service approach – a model, the company says, which allows defence primes and other industries to scale factories to meet existing or new Program of Record demand for parts, assemblies, or entire products.

The Navy hopes this will take pressure off of its breathless shipyards.

A dedicated production plant focused on certain components frees up capacity for these shipyards to focus more resources on submarine module production, the Navy stated in its release.

“We call this distributed shipbuilding,” said Jason Potter, performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition.

“These factories of the future might be several states away from the yards where the ships are ultimately built, but by taking on this work they reduce bottlenecks, having a profound effect on the speed of delivery,” Potter intimated.

Known as “Factory 4”, the project is estimated to take 18-24 months from initiation to full-rate production, including stand-up of automated production facilities, qualification of components, compliance qualifications like submarine safety program, and low-rate initial production.

By the third year, the facilities will operate sustainably through delivery of submarine product lines.