From Navy Times:
Navy freezes surface ship maintenance funds
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Mar 1, 2009 9:14:01 EST
The Navy froze funding for surface ship maintenance across the fleet in early February, deferring some $450 million worth of work for repair shipyards on the East and West coasts, according to a shipyard advocacy group.
The reasons behind the funding freeze were unclear at press time, along with how long it's expected to last. Two Navy spokesmen declined to give details, saying they couldn't release any information before the end of a budgetary review.
The freeze affects ships scheduled to begin their maintenance availabilities later this spring, but work will continue on ships already in the yard.
If the freeze keeps up, ships scheduled for regular maintenance in late March or April won't be able to go into shipyards in San Diego and Hampton Roads, Va. Officials at those shipyards, in turn, are worried they will have to lay off their skilled workers, but industry officials in Virginia said they hoped it wouldn't come to that.
About $135 million of the deferred maintenance money would have gone to Hampton Roads yards, said Mal Branch, president of the Virginia Ship Repair Association, which represents the repair yards. In a statement asking for help from Virginia's congressional delegation, the association said the funding cut would be "devastating" to its members.
Representatives for the San Diego Ship Repair Association could not be reached for comment.
Branch said he and Virginia repair yard officials already knew this year's work would be cut by about 35 percent, but they were caught off guard by the sudden, unexplained end to funding. A Feb. 2 message from Naval Surface Forces Atlantic to regional repair centers for Hampton Roads and Naval Station Mayport, Fla., told them not to award any new repair work.
