Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles attended the keel laying ceremony for the USS Barb this week along with other Australian military officials.
They were in the audience at Newport News Shipyard a day after meeting in Washington D.C with U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to finalize a reboot of the Aukus Pact.
The deal that included Australia buying three Virginia-class submarines was delayed by the White House. There have been concerns over whether the U.S. has the capacity to build enough Virginia-class subs to meet its own demand and the partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia, which was signed under the Biden administration.
After the ceremony, Kari Wilkinson, president of Huntington Ingalls Industry Newport News Shipbuilding Division, said there is capacity.
“We've been investing in that relationship,” Wilkinson said. “It's an important one, and we have the capability, and we understand the national objective with respect to Aukus, so we're here to support that.”
In May, the shipbuilder furloughed 470 salaried workers as part of a restructuring. Roughly 30% of the planning and engineering staff were eventually let go, while the rest retired, found other jobs or were moved to other parts of the business, she said.
The downsizing came as Newport News continues to hire skilled tradespeople, which are in high demand throughout the industry. A wage increase helped stabilize retention, and next year the company is expected to begin hiring more skilled tradespeople to expand its workforce of roughly 21,000 workers at Newport News.
“Over the course of this year, we really hired for attrition, and we ramped up in specific areas. Next year, we'll be more meaningfully hiring from a craft perspective,” Wilkinson said.
This comes as the shipbuilder tries to clear the backlog of orders for aircraft carriers and submarines. The next carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, was originally scheduled to be delivered this year but is now on target to be turned over to the Navy at the end of next year. The second Ford-class aircraft carrier just completed its first sea trials, Wilkinson said.
The keel-laying ceremony for the 23rd Virginia-class submarine USS Barb is a traditional milestone for the boat.
The vessel is the third submarine named USS Barb. The first USS Barb is credited with sinking 17 ships during World War II, including a Japanese carrier. That crew is credited with blowing up a train in the only U.S. operation on the Japanese home island.
Its commander, Rear Adm. Eugene Bennett “Lucky” Fluckey was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. His great-granddaughter-in-law Pamela Bove is the ship’s sponsor.
“He had the honor and the privilege to serve with each and every one of those committed, courageous and unstoppable men,” Bove told the crowd in Newport News. “I heard him say many times that what made him most proud over everything else was his ability to return every man back home to their loved ones unharmed.”
When complete, the newest USS Barb will be able to reach speeds of 25 knots and stay submerged for up to three months. It requires a construction crew of 4,000 workers.
