Having worked as a military contractor & seeing military inefficiency up close, farming out the handling of shipbuilding to a company that works for profit (& efficiency) isn’t that bad of an idea imo.
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Industry has been using separate or subsidiary companies to deliver new ships for decades.
MSC had a Ship Introduction Program office for about ten years which did final delivery of about 25 ships.
Until the Admiral realized that we were still stuck with a NAVSEA fu’d contract.
I had first hand knowledge to above
MARAD very successfully used a VCM for the NMSV
ALL if which proves that NAVSEA IS the problem
I know a program manager for contract vessels at MSC that would be perfect for that job! He’s great at inefficient bureaucracy… like excels at it. …I just realized that I’m describing all of MSC’s shoreside workforce.
As a Delft University Naval architect and Ship Design Engineer (1970), i have been working at several Netherlands’ shipyards; and as member of the contract team (the VCM) i had to take design and (partly) contract responsibility for the consturcion of several kinds of naval vessels like mine hunters, landing crafts and frigates.
The problem stipulated here will not be solved by introducing a VCM to be responsible (and liable?) for the execution of contracts for naval vessels in a commercial way. The abscence of a VCM is not the problem!
The reason is the following. At signing the contract of a commercial vessel, the design drawings and specifications are abt. 90% complete and therefore are sufficient to allow the yard to execute the contract within its time and price limits. At signing a contract with the navy, the design drawings and specifications cover abt. 60%-70% of what the yard needs to build the vessel(s) without delays caused by not yet available construction information.
And this is logic. According my own experience a commercial ship design + specifications can become available for contracting in a 3 to 6 months period; a naval design + specifications normally takes 2 or 3 years to come abt. 70% complete because the navy needs to implement the latest technical systems (whether hardware or (command- / intelligence) software) which are not yet available during this design process. As the yard can perform a contract for a commercial ship owner as a fixed commercial contract, a navy contract always is performed “under management”.
The Navy itselves, and NOT the VCM, is the managing party! The VCM has no power inside the navy to deliver the information the yard needs available at the moment yard needs it for its construction.
Hence, improving the actual system for the construction of naval vessels to a better manageable contract performance, at the moment of contract signing the Navy must have agreed with the yard on maximum price and time factors of all outstanding information items!
My experience : I have not yet seen a navy being capable of doing so.
Conclusion : it is a problem with conflicting parameters, and a VCM cannot solve that.
Henk Keers, N.A. M.Sc. The Netherlands
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Maybe this idea could be copied?:
Modified to suite US Navy, Coast Guard and shipyard situation as necessary. (Without killing the advantages and cost saving built into the idea in the process)
In theory it’s a good idea, but having been both a contractor and at the mercy of contractors on government projects, I see a lot of this becoming a blame game. Navy wants to distance itself from the disastrous change orders that straight up destroy timelines and budgets.
if it works out, great. If it doesn’t, who cares? Build was never going to be on time or on budget anyways.
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“Navy wants to distance itself from the disastrous change orders that straight up destroy timelines and budgets.”
If this would be really true, and to avoid that the Navy would need to issue any change order at all, at contract signing the Navy should have all technical information (drawings, specifications, delivery times and prices) of the entire ship with all its systems, presented to and agreed+signed with the shipyard. With my experience, no Navy can do this as this is impossible.
Therefore, only a contract under management can be applied. In such contract, all outstanding items (say 30%) should be budgetted in time and money and be agreed upon by Navy and Yard. For the 70%, no change order should come, which means a major improvement of the actual situation. Handling the 30% would become the key task of the VCM, it is his task to keep this within the previously agreed limits.
Dieks