On Dec. 21, President Biden signed three determinations permitting the use of the Defense Production Act to strengthen the U.S. submarine industrial base, the Department of Defense announced Dec. 22.
The expansion of the authority will allow the U.S. Navy to maintain its maritime superiority, the DoD said.
Scaling the production of Virginia-class attack submarines will ensure the U.S. Navy can meet its missions to maintain open sea lanes for global communication and commerce, enhance diplomatic partnerships and grow a robust underwater warfare capability, the DoD said. Through the DPA, the U.S. Navy can make key investments with the manufacturers and suppliers executing the submarine shipbuilding plan.
These activities will strengthen the shipbuilding industrial base and allow its heavy manufacturing and large scale fabrication suppliers to meet growing demand and expand the maritime workforce training pipeline.
“Ensuring a robust, resilient and competitive domestic defense industrial base that has the capability, capacity and workforce to meet the Virginia-class submarine undersea warfighting mission is essential to our national security,” said a memo attributed to Biden.
The DoD said it continues to work with key stakeholders to use Defense Production Act authorities to address risks and challenges across the submarine enterprise supply chain. These authorities expand options and opportunities to accelerate and scale critical investments across key markets.
More information about the DPA is available here, and the presidential determination can be found here.
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