Ranking Member Courtney Calls on Pentagon to Deliver Delayed Submarine Contract

NORWICH, CT - Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Ranking Member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, sent a letter the U.S. Department of Defense calling on them to execute the long overdue multi-year contract for construction of up to eleven Block VI Virginia-class submarines. In 2023, Congress enacted authority in the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act for the Navy to award this contract to shipbuilders, with the expectation that it would move quickly to execution. Read Rep. Courtney's full letter here.

"The signing of the Block VI contract will strengthen the critical long term demand signal to the entire submarine industrial base, enabling U.S. shipbuilders and supply chain companies to achieve the goal of higher production cadence, which the Navy's shipbuilding plan and the Defense Department's AUKUS review identified as critical to our national security," Courtney wrote in the letter.

Last week, in a House Armed Service Committee hearing, Courtney explicitly raised this issue while questioning Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment Michael Duffey. The Under Secretary in his written testimony strongly endorsed multi-year procurement as the strongest tool to accelerate our nation's defense industrial base.

"Procurement instability has been consistently identified within industry as the biggest reason why there's hesitation for people to invest and get into the game, and that's particularly true in shipbuilding because it is a long game," Courtney said in the hearing.

Watch and download the full video here.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that both Republicans and Democrats are pushing the Navy to award submarine contracts:

"There is huge bipartisan agreement that we need to grow the submarine fleet and that it's time for the Navy to move forward and eliminate any risk that a contract delay could cause," Courtney said in the story.

Read the full article here.

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