{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Paul Truesdell Podcast","title":"The Essential The National Security Economics of the U.S. Navy - Part 4","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":821,"description":"The Other U.S. Yards, Florida’s Role, and Tampa’s Lost CapacityWhen you step back from Newport News and look at the rest of America’s naval shipbuilding map, you realize how small and specialized it really is. We are not a country dotted with mega-yards anymore. Instead, we are a country with just a handful of critical facilities, each one tied to a single type of ship, each one with very little margin for error.In Maine, Bath Iron Works builds destroyers — specifically, the Arleigh Burke class. It has been doing so for decades, and while it is a capable yard, it is also limited. One or two destroyers in progress at any given time, that is the rhythm. In Mississippi, Ingalls Shipbuilding carries much of the load for amphibious ships and also turns out destroyers. Ingalls is big by American standards, but again, it is only one yard.Submarines are split between Newport News and Electric Boat, which operates in Groton, Connecticut, and Quonset Point, Rhode Island. These two yards handle the nuclear sub fleet, including the Virginia-class attack subs and the new Columbia-class ballistic missile subs. Their order books are full, their schedules tight, and their ability to surge production is practically nonexistent.Beyond those names, the rest of the picture gets thin. A few smaller yards in Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Alabama have turned out littoral combat ships, patrol craft, or support vessels. These are important, but they are not front-line capital ships. They are niche players.And then there is Florida. Our state does contribute, but on a modest scale. In Panama City, Eastern Shipbuilding Group is building the Coast Guard’s new Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutters. These are significant ships for the Coast Guard, but they are not warships in the sense of carriers or destroyers. Eastern also fabricates big structural sections for destroyers, shipping them to Ingalls in Mississippi for final assembly. So Florida plays the role of a subcontractor, feeding the big...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/115-XsjkdwCpJ99xv-8oZ76t6jr8ScWEC5MYSKzL0ig/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82MTUx/OWRiNTc0NTk0Y2Nk/M2VjYTliMGVhN2Zm/YTZkZi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}