The Navy’s Missing Welders Are Stocking Shelves

The U.S. Navy’s May 2026 shipbuilding plan, signed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, uses the word “innovative” eight times. The plan applies that word, among other things, to the Columbia-class submarine, an acquisition strategy for the medium landing ship, and new approaches to running the public shipyards. Elsewhere, the shipbuilding plan notes that recent increases in wages at Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding got both yards to their required 2025 hiring rate and cut attrit

Source: War on the Rocks