The U.S. Navy has nixed plans to repair a nuclear submarine damaged by arson at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, citing repair costs that exceeded estimates and federal budget cuts. The USS Miami will be decommissioned 10 years early as a result.
The Portland Press Herald reported the Navy estimated the repairs at $390 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, a sum that one official said would force the Navy to cancel several projects on other ships and subs.
Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, the Navy’s director of Undersea Warfare, said in a prepared statement that the decision to decommission the USS Miami will “open up funds to support other vital maintenance efforts, improving the wholeness and readiness of the fleet.”
The four senators from Maine and New Hampshire had earlier this year pushed for and won $150 million for the repair of the ship, which they said would offset decreases from the automatic federal budget cuts, known as sequestration. Those senators decried the decision to decommission the USS Miami as “a loss to our nuclear submarine fleet.” They blamed those federal budget cuts for the decision, saying they would continue to work for a responsible budget solution that replaces those automatic cuts.
So far, the Navy said it has spent $8 million of a $94 million repair contract award given to Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics based in Connecticut.
Arvad Worster, a union leader for the shipyard’s 600 civilian employees, said the decision is not likely to cut the union’s workload. Those workers will have six furlough days this year — reduced by the Department of Defense from 11 in a decision issued Tuesday — as a result of federal budget cuts.
