The Navy plans to decommission three Pearl Harbor ships in fiscal 2013 — a move that would drop the surface fleet to eight, affect ship repair jobs and take millions from Hawaii’s economy.
“It’s not good news that we’re losing ships,” said Iain Wood, president of the Ship Repair Association of Hawaii and chief operations officer with Pacific Shipyards International, which does contract work for the Navy at Pearl Harbor Shipyard’s Drydock 4. “It’s going to be less work. There’s no two ways around it.”
About 90 percent of the shipyard’s efforts are directed at submarine work, and private contractor BAE Systems Hawaii Shipyards performs surface ship jobs using an on-island workforce of about 650, including subcontractors.
The Navy revealed plans March 12 to deactivate the Pearl Harbor-based frigate Crommelin on Oct. 31, the cruiser Port Royal on March 31, 2013, and the frigate Reuben James on Aug. 30, 2013. Both frigates will be headed for foreign military sale.
In 2014 the Navy plans to retire the cruiser Chosin, but Pearl Harbor is expected to gain a new destroyer, the Michael Murphy, named after a Hawaii-based SEAL commando who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 and who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery.
The loss of the three Navy ships this year and next means about 800 fewer crew members and their families and elimination of salaries, contracts and spending related to the ships.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye’s office said earlier this month that the Navy over the next two years plans to call for an increase in the number of submarines based or coming for shipyard work at Pearl Harbor, with up to five more subs being added to Hawaii’s 19-boat fleet.
Among the additions planned are two more Virginia-class attack submarines — one in fiscal year 2013 and another in 2014, Inouye’s office said.
The additional submarine presence should make up for the surface ship loss, the Hawaii Democrat’s office said, adding that the Navy gave assurances that there will be no negative effects on the shipyard workload in the next 10 years.
That’s a cumulative assessment, with the surface ship side of the work still diminishing.
The Navy yard is the largest industrial employer in the state with a combined civilian and military workforce of more than 4,900 and an economic impact of $907 million a year.
Surface ship contractors may be able to get other work at Drydock 4, officials have said. Additionally, an increase in submarines could provide the opportunity for surface ship workers to pick up some jobs.
“I think a positive thing for the state is if the shipyard itself has a high workload … and that could translate into us providing support for the sub side any way we can,” Wood said.
The Defense Department’s budget request for 2013, released in February, sets out $487 billion in cuts over the next 10 years.
Among the decisions made by the Navy was to retire seven cruisers early, including the Port Royal and Chosin, to save on upgrade and repair costs.
The Navy’s just-released long-range ship construction plan said there are 282 warships now, with 300 expected by 2019.
The report said the Pearl Harbor submarine La Jolla will be converted to a “moored training ship” in 2015, and the City of Corpus Christi will be deactivated.
The submarine Houston will be deactivated in 2016, according to the Navy plan, while the Bremerton and Jacksonville would be removed from service in 2017.
