La. shipyard could push for Navy tanker work - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

La. shipyard could push for Navy tanker work

Democratic members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation believe they may have found a solution to keep the beleaguered Avondale shipyard near New Orleans in business.

“The Navy will make public tomorrow its plans to move up construction of double-hulled tankers from 2017 to 2014 and the guarantee that two LPD ships currently under construction at Avondale will be completed there,” Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Charlie Melancon said in a news release issued Thursday afternoon.

Northrop Grumman Corp. revealed in July its intention to close the Avondale yard and offer for sale all of its shipyards. Navy officials privately have supported the closure of the Avondale yard — smallest of the company’s three major shipyards — as part of a series of solutions to improve Northrop’s Gulf coast operations.

Northrop took that a step further with its announcement to shed itself of shipbuilding and concentrate on its electronics and communications businesses.

Avondale employs about 5,000 people in the hard-hit New Orleans area, which is still recovering from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of the city.

Northrop builds LPD amphibious transport ships at the Avondale yard and its Ingalls facility at Pascagoula, Miss. Northrop leadership pledged in its July declarations to complete the ships at Avondale rather than have them towed to Ingalls.

The Navy is planning to build new double-hulled tankers but has yet to put the T-AO(X) program up for bids. Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, head of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, writing in the September issue of MSC’s monthly newsletter, said the Navy “will go forward with an accelerated funding profile to start building these ships four years earlier than planned.”

There is no guarantee Avondale would win the T-AO(X) contract, as the General Dynamics-owned National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego also is expected to bid on the program. The ships also are seen as key to that shipyard’s future.

Landrieu and Melancon said in a joint letter the chance to bid on the tanker contract would make Avondale “more attractive to prospective new shipbuilding buyers.” They acknowledged they didn’t yet have all the answers.

“While today’s announcement is not a silver bullet, it is a small step in the direction of making Avondale viable years into the future,” they wrote.

Politics could also be afoot, as they normally are with jobs programs. While Landrieu is not up for re-election, Melancon is in a race with incumbent Republican David Vitter for Louisiana’s other Senate seat. A Rasmussen poll in late August showed Melancon training Vitter by 54 percent to 33 percent — a margin which has remained somewhat steady throughout this year. Even a recent Democratic poll had Melancon trailing Vitter by 10 points.

Navy officials announced a news conference for Friday morning, although they have not disclosed the subject matter.

Related reading

• Lawmakers urge action on Avondale closing (July 16)

• Northrop to close yard, may sell ship business (July 13)