‘THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT ANO ACQUISITION) 1000 NAVY PENTAGON. WASHINGTON DC 20350-1000 The Honorable Mark R. Warner United States Senate Washington, DC 20510-4605 Dear Senator Warner: Thank you for your letter of October 1, 2015, concerning the Hampton Roads area shipbuilding and ship repair industries. | am responding on behalf of Secretary Mabus. the Navy shares your concerns about the reduction of Fiscal Year 2016 workload and resulting layoffs announced in the Hampton Roads area and is working with Congress and industry to mitigate current reduction in workload in order to minimize the loss of critical ship repair skills before workload returns to more traditional levels. The Navy is executing a Continuous Maintenance Availability on USS GETTYSBURG (CG 64) and tasked industry to accelerate completion of planning in order to commence repair work in January 2016. Additionally, the Navy accelerated planning efforts for Special Selected Restricted Availabilities (SSRA) to expedite contract awards for USS GETTYSBURG and USS TORTUGA (LSD 46). We are on track to make the competitive contract award for USS GETTYSBURG SSRA no later than April 1, 2016, and the contract award for USS TORTUGA SSRA no later than May 25, 2016. This represents a three month acceleration for the USS GETTYSBURG and a six month acceleration for the USS TORTUGA, and if we can further improve upon these schedules, we will. Further, the Selected Restricted Availability for USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) was recently accelerated by one month. The Navy also outsourced two submarine maintenance availabilities to the private sector based on capacity limitations in the Naval Shipyards, and continues to target other opportunities to mitigate workforce impacts. The Navy will continue a long standing effort to work with Congress and industry to address shipbuilding and ship repair industrial base concerns in Navy homeports. Sustainment ofa healthy industrial base is a key element of delivering warships, maintaining the readiness of the force and modernizing the force to achieve expected service life Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. A similar response has been sent to Senator Kaine. Sincerely, is Sean J. StackleyTHE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY (RESEARCH, DEVELOPHENT AND ACQUISITION) 1000 NAVY PENTAGON WASHINGTON DC 20350-1000 The Honorable Tim Kaine United States Senate Washington, DC 20510-4606 Dear Senator Kaine: Thank you for your letter of October 1, 2015, concerning the Hampton Roads area shipbuilding and ship repair industries. | am responding on behalf of Secretary Mabus. The Navy shares your concerns about the reduction of Fiscal Year 2016 workload and resulting layoffs announced in the Hampton Roads area and is working with Congress and industry to mitigate current reduction in workload in order to minimize the loss of critical ship repair skills before workload returns to more traditional levels. The Navy is executing a Continuous Maintenance Availability on USS GETTYSBURG (CG 64) and tasked industry to accelerate completion of planning in order to commence repair work in January 2016. Additionally, the Navy accelerated planning efforts for Special Selected Restricted Availabilities (SSRA) to expedite contract awards for USS GETTYSBURG and USS TORTUGA (LSD 46). We are on track to make the competitive contract award for USS GETTYSBURG SSRA no later than April 1, 2016, and the contract award for USS TORTUGA SSRA no later than May 25, 2016. This represents a three month acceleration for the USS GETTYSBURG and a six month acceleration for the USS TORTUGA, and if we can further improve upon these schedules, we will. Further, the Selected Restricted Availability for USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) was recently accelerated by one month. The Navy also outsourced two submarine maintenance availabilities to the private sector based on capacity limitations in the Naval Shipyards, and continues to target other opportunities to mitigate workforce impacts. ‘The Navy will continue a long standing effort to work with Congress and industry to address shipbuilding and ship repair industrial base concerns in Navy homeports. Sustainment of a healthy industrial base is a key element of delivering warships, maintaining the readiness of the force and modernizing the force to achieve expected service life Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. A similar response has been sent to Senator Warner. Sincerely. Ws Sean J. Stackley