“Systems don’t build ships. People do,” Phelan said. “A quarter of the shipyard workforce is retirement eligible within five years. Over the next decade, shipbuilders and suppliers will need to hire roughly 250,000 skilled workers to meet demand. That means apprenticeships, vocational training, accelerated pipelines and partnerships with local communities. It also means paying fair wages … consistent build schedules so shipyard workers can have lifetime careers. AI and automation do not replace the workforce.”
Phelan said the Golden Fleet effort is focused on delivering new hulls, strengthening the industrial base and “changing how the Department of the Navy does business,” adding, “It’s about our culture.” Officials said shipbuilding acceleration is a top Navy priority, with new surface combatant programmes announced last month by President Donald Trump.
Rear Adm. Derek Trinque said the new battleship programme evolved from the DDG(X) requirements and is intended to support hypersonic weapons integration. “We found ourselves in a weird situation where in order to keep an adequate number of MK 41 [Vertical Launch System] cells, we were going to have to make a choice between a gun weapon system and Conventional Prompt Strike,” he said, adding, “I hate that choice.”
Explaining the shift to a single battleship design, Trinque said, “As the resource sponsor, as the requirements sponsor, I don’t want to put those kinds of limits on the fleet. And so, when national leaders announced that they were interested in building a battleship, this was a great opportunity for us.” He added that the ship could provide command and control for a surface action group and would have a larger crew than current destroyers.
Source: USNI News.
