Senator Sherrod Brown
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has urged administration officials to move forward with a proposal by Bartlett Marine Corps to build and operate a submarine parts repair facility in Lorain and Lordstown.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro, Brown urged their support for the proposal and called for them to “act swiftly to direct resources from the recently passed National Security Supplemental Act to the Bartlett Maritime Corporation to accelerate the delayed maintenance of the submarine fleet.”
In his letter, Brown also said he was encouraged by the Navy's innovative efforts to revitalize the nation's shipbuilding and repair industries while addressing the submarine maintenance crisis and strengthening the industrial base.
“Investing in Ohio facilities will help ensure the critical maintenance capabilities needed to execute our national security strategy of controlling the undersea domain and optimize Navy readiness,” he wrote. “Current security challenges in the Indo-Pacific underscore the importance of our fleet operating at maximum readiness levels.”
Brown gave the example of China, which has the capability to counter most US defense systems but does not appear to have the technology to detect next-generation attack submarines (SSNs).
“With China rapidly emerging in this field and the Russian Navy continuing to ramp up its development of a powerful submarine fleet, it is critical that we rapidly invest in our strategy now to remain a global leader and maintain our superiority in submarine technology,” he wrote. “The first thing we need to do is get our existing submarines out of maintenance gridlock and back to sea.”
“The proposed facilities in Lorain and Lordstown would provide the capability and capacity to significantly reduce months, or even years, of shipbuilding delays the Navy currently experiences.”
The recently passed National Security Supplemental Bill includes critical funding to restore and grow the nation's submarine industrial base, Brown wrote.
“The situation in Ukraine has clearly highlighted the need to support improvements in this subsector,” he wrote. “Similarly, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act invests in readiness priorities in this turbulent waters and explicitly recognizes the importance of submarines to defending interests related to China's expanding regional objectives.”
Brown wrote that he believes Bartlett's proposal is an affordable and strategic means to utilize Northeast Ohio's available and highly talented workforce to sustain undersea national security interests.
“The Navy faces a major challenge in addressing our submarine maintenance crisis. Investing in Bartlett Maritime now would have an immediate positive impact on the local economy, Naval readiness, and national security,” he wrote. “I urge you to consider Bartlett Maritime's proposal and seize this opportunity as a means to take bold, immediate action to rebuild our nation's maritime capabilities.”
