Navy League 2026: US Navy considers changes at public yards to boost production

The US Navy wants to improve production at its public shipyards, like Norfolk Naval Shipyard, shown here. (US Navy)

As the US Navy (USN) looks to increase ship-work rates at its public yards, the service is considering whether to change production schedules, according to Admiral Daryle Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO).

“I'm not short on [ship-work] capacity or need,” Adm Caudle told reporters on 20 April during a media roundtable at the Navy League Sea Air Space Maritime Symposium in National Harbor, Maryland.

“There are concerns with [ship-work] backlog,” Adm Caudle said. “But I can't go out and grow a workforce,” he said. “It's about workforce – that's what's being studied.”

The focus on is on blue-collar trade workers, the CNO said. “That population comes from [the community] around the actual yard. It's hard to get across country. You can get that in white-collar engineering, but trades and vocation come from where the yard is and that's the nature of it.”

Adm Caudle added, “When I invest in that, I look at tradeoffs. We've never had them in a full production cycle. It's never been looked at in earnest – a true second and third shift at the public yards. Is that a more viable way to get increased capacity?”

Currently, the USN operates four public shipyards: Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Kittery, Maine; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington state; and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.