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Shipbuilding Technology and Education
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After decades of outstanding contributions to the nation’s naval capability, the U.S. shipbuilding industry is in crisis. During the 1980s, at the behest of the Reagan administration, U.S. shipbuilders turned to constructing many new naval vessels. Following these achievements and with the ensuing defense builddown, U.S. shipbuilders lost significant parts of their business and work force, having become increasingly isolated from world commercial shipbuilding markets. In the mid-1970s, a combined total of about 20 large, oceangoing commercial ships were built every year in all private U.S. yards; since 1984, that number has been 10 or fewer ships every year, with no vessels on order between 1989 and 1991. In the meantime, other shipbuilding nations, aided by generous government support, learned to build ships in series and to capitalize on economies of scale and learn- ing efficiencies. All of these trends have prompted concern on the part of the U.S. govern- ment and others about the potential of the nation’s shipbuilding industry to con- tribute to both military and commercial objectives. The National Defense Autho- rization Act of 1993 and a following Clinton administration plan, Strengthening America’s Shipyards (1993), established the goal of a national commercial ship- building industry that provides a technology base and research and development infrastructure for achieving both sets of objectives.
Committee on National Needs in Maritime Technology, National Research Council - Organizational Body
0-309-52166-1
NONE
Information Technology
English
1996
1-161
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