Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Defense Industry topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Defense roundtable flags ship-repair losses and pushes regional workforce training
Summary
At a July 22 PPIC meeting, staff reported on a June 25 DoD industry roundtable in which regional ship repair firms raised concerns about lost business and participants discussed expanding maritime and maintenance training across Hampton Roads.
Commission staff briefed the Portsmouth Port Industrial Commission on a June 25 defense industry roundtable that brought together regional ship-repair companies, contractors and workforce partners and highlighted concerns about lost ship-repair work and the need to expand local training programs.
Sunny Belston, who coordinated the roundtable, reported that 20 participants attended and that businesses represented included Mills Marine, Crofton, Fairlead, Collins Marine, GI Industrial, NAVCO Norfolk, General Dynamics and Structural Mechanical. Belston said the Rhodes Alliance presented a playbook for how the industry could organize regionally.
Belston said participants discussed growth and contracting opportunities, crime concerns and improving relationships with local military installations; the Portsmouth police chief attended to address public-safety questions. No formal action was taken at the PPIC on the roundtable report.
A recurring concern relayed from the roundtable was that the Navy’s shifting ship home-porting and deployment patterns have reduced available repair work for local private ship-repair yards. Belston summarized industry remarks and commissioners discussed a request from the Virginia Ship Repair Association to change a procurement window in federal contracting rules from 12 months to 18 months to limit coast-wide bidding for long repairs and keep work in the region.
A commissioner who identified himself as Mr. Carter discussed workforce development and regional training partnerships, saying local institutions are exploring expanded programs linking Old Dominion University, regional community colleges and the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to accelerate training for defense manufacturing and maritime trades. Carter said the region has funds available to build capacity at the middle- and high-school levels but noted enrollment outreach remains a challenge; he added that he had been invited to sit on a regional maintenance training board.
Carter also summarized industry concern about fleet size, saying, “the navy ship count in Norfolk in Portsmouth in Norfolk is the lowest it's been in the history of the world,” and he urged attention to the procurement-window change to help retain regional repair work. The transcript attributes the quoted language to Mr. Carter.
Commission staff distributed a handout from the roundtable and said they will continue to work with regional partners on workforce training and business engagement. The discussion was reported as informational; commissioners did not vote on policy changes or funding at the July 22 meeting.
