Navy League 2024: HII underscores need to stoke supply chain early for…

HII is hoping to avoid some of the resource issues that have delayed the construction of carrier Enterprise , whose keel-laying is shown here. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

Hoping to bolster the supply chain for the production of aircraft carrier CVN 82, HII is hoping to get funding and support for material orders for suppliers, Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, noted during a roundtable media discussion on 4 April in advance of the Navy League Sea-Air-Space 2024 global maritime exposition, starting on 8 April in National Harbor, Maryland.

“There are continuing discussions with the navy about the importance of a healthy supply chain for aircraft carriers, which means we would like to get started in [20]26 and potentially even [20]25 on the critical suppliers in regard to [CVN] 82,” Kastner said.

He added, “There's no doubt that a two-ship buy with [CVN] 80 [ Enterprise ] and [CVN] 81 [ Doris Miller ] really reduced the risk of [CVN] 81. The risk we have on [CVN] 80 in the supply chain has been alleviated on [CVN] 81. The order status on the [CVN] 81 subcontractors is very good.”

He said demand for US Navy (USN) submarine-construction programmes is likely not having an impact on any parts needed for carrier programmes.

“I don't think so. They're not the same parts. There's just some critical large components on 80 that is impacting the erection of that ship and a strategy for building that ship, which is delaying it. I would not think it's an overlap between the two.”