The United States has the most powerful navy in the world today, and its number of ships is unmatched. However, such a naval strength also requires strong logistics.
Looking back at the United States during World War II, there was once an aircraft carrier "Yorktown" that was heavily damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea. At the level of technology at that time, it would take at least 3 months to repair the aircraft carrier, and the Japanese side already considered it out of battle.
But what is surprising is that 1,400 American workers fought for more than three days to restore the "Yorktown" aircraft carrier to combat effectiveness and catch up with the Battle of Midway, which affected the direction of the Pacific War. Such naval shipbuilding capabilities allowed the United States to build a huge navy in just a few years, when there were 150 aircraft carriers alone.
However, the current shipbuilding capacity of the United States is disappointing. In 2021, the USS Connecticut, an attack nuclear submarine called the USS Connecticut, which collided with an underwater mountain range in the South China Sea, was originally planned to cost 50 million US dollars (about 3 yuan.)500 million yuan), to be repaired by September 2025. But now it is estimated that it will not be able to return to combat until 2026 at the earliest, and the cost of repairs has risen to 80 million US dollars (about 5 yuan.)600 million yuan).
Such a delay was caused by the fact that there were 19 nuclear submarines waiting for maintenance and repair in front of the "Connecticut", and the work of the shipyard was piled up. Why does the world's largest navy have no corresponding logistical support capabilities?
In fact, a naval power not only needs excellent military shipyards, but also a huge supporting civilian ship industry. Because shipbuilding requires a series of special equipment such as docks and gantry cranes, if it is only used for the military, then the cost will be very high, and the money will be counted in the first place.
The high **will force** to buy less. The less purchased, the lower the utilization rate of specialized equipment and the higher the cost......Thus creating a vicious circle. This is also an important reason why many small and wealthy countries are unable to develop large-scale navies. On the contrary, if the country has a developed civilian ship industry, then the shipbuilding professional equipment can be shared by the military and civilians, thereby reducing the cost. For example, compared with the huge volume of civil cargo ships, the tonnage of ** is actually not large. After all, a 10,000-ton destroyer can sweep the world, but a 10,000-ton cargo ship can't do anything.
This leads to the fact that among the several docks in the shipyard, often the smallest one is military, and the large one is civilian. Then the cost of use of the military dock has already been shared by the civilian equipment in the large dock. Lower costs mean lower costs, which can attract more orders, thus forming a virtuous circle.
In addition to the cost of use, the more important thing is the talent. Among these highly qualified shipbuilders, they are involved in the creation of military ships only after a rigorous review. That is, the more shipbuilding talents, the more people who will build military ships. The two are mutually reinforcing.
But what about the United States?According to the U.S. Department of Defense, in 1985 there were 3 million employees in the U.S. shipbuilding industry, but now there are less than 1.1 million left, a decrease of two-thirds. From 1985 to the present, the number of upstream and downstream companies in the U.S. shipbuilding industry has decreased by 17,000 due to bankruptcy, career change or merger.
Such a recession will not affect the construction of the Navy in the short term. But after decades of accumulation, this problem has finally been exposed. It is the United States that has led to the decline of the American shipbuilding industry. The United States implements the ** system, which is actually the rotation of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. With each change, the successors of different parties often overturn the policies of their predecessors for the sake of their own interests. As a result, the U.S. defense industry lacks long-term sustainability and is full of uncertainties.
For example, the U.S. Navy releases a new 30-year shipbuilding plan every year, but the content of the plan often changes. This uncertainty has led to a reluctance in the shipbuilding industry, which has higher input costs, to expand and recruit more shipbuilders. After a long period of accumulation, the decay of shipbuilding inevitably occurred. We often wonder why the price of US ships is often one price at the time of bidding, and another price after it is completed. The difference between the two ** can even be hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is actually the result of the shrinkage of the civilian shipbuilding industry in the United States. Due to the inability of civilian ships to effectively allocate costs, the cost of the whole chain of military ships from equipment to personnel is counted on the first level. For example, the United States' "San Antonio"-class dock landing ship is as high as $2.2 billion. And the Chinese Type 071 dock landing ship, which is comparable in performance, only needs 1$300 million.