Submarines and the Future of Defense Manufacturing
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Why are submarines essential for U.S. strategic deterrence and global access?
The real advantage that submarines bring is our stealth and access. We can pretty much go anywhere in the world undetected. We can carry nuclear missiles on our ballistic missile submarines, and that ensures that we continue our decades of peace without nuclear war, that any country that tried to attack us with nuclear weapons would be destroyed. At the end of the Cold War, we walked away from manufacturing. The amount of work that we need now to plenish our fleet is on the order of about 70 million hours.
The power of combining the new workforce, American software, American steel, and American spirit is you have to get this productivity jump somehow with advanced factories. It's not a money problem. We have to get this productivity uplift by fusing workforce training and software together to go a lot faster.
In the mid-90s, the United States built four nuclear submarines a year. Then the Cold War ended, production collapsed, and nine out of ten manufacturing jobs vanished. An entire generation was told to skip the factory floor. Four decades later, the Navy needs more than five times the capacity it had a decade ago. The Columbia class program requires roughly seventy million labor hours. The workers who could fill them aged out. And nobody replaced them. This is not a budget problem. The money exists. The people do not. The question is whether software-driven manufacturing can compress a decade of training into something the country can scale. David Yulevich speaks with Chris Power, founder and CEO at Hadrian, and Vice Admiral Robert Goucher, the Pentagon's first submarine czar.
I am very, very, very, very lucky to have two incredible folks joining me on stage. This is going to be a conversation you do not want to miss. So in addition to having Chris Power, the founder and CEO of Hadrian, who you heard earlier, we also have Adl Robert Goucher, who charge of all submarine production for the United States Navy. Let me give you a quick background for those of you that are not familiar with the defense industrial base, the Navy is an extraordinary force. They operate across the largest domain on Earth. They cover more than 70% of the planet. And the Navy is responsible for projecting American power, maintaining deterrence, and ensuring stability across that entire space. This is a service that has been operating continuously since 1775.
That's 250 years already. It's adapted to new technologies, new threats, new missions, and it remains one of the most capable institutions in the world. And that's why we're here in Cherokee. That's why we're opening this facility. We're opening up Hadrian's Factory 4, a 2.25 million. Million square foot advanced manufacturing facility that's gonna support the Columbia and Virginia class submarine programs. So let's just start out actually with you, Admiral. For people that are not familiar with the real world problems, what problems do we solve with submarines? Why do we have a submarine program? And why is it important that we rebuild our submarine program?
I think the real advantage that submarines bring is our stealth and access. We can pretty much go anywhere in the world undetected. And so that becomes a very big threat for our enemies or adversaries. And as I look at the two biggest missions that we satisfy, we have fast attack submarines that go out and operate and they make sure that our seaways and waterways remain free and open to anybody who would try to shut them down. And you heard Chris talk about how Australia needs to get supplies from external. Well, the submarine force can make sure that those supplies make it when they need to and where they need to. The other mission, which is our number one mission in the Department of War, is strategic deterrence.
How did the Cold War’s end reduce America’s submarine manufacturing capacity?
So we carry nuclear missiles on our ballistic missile submarines, like the Columbia class that we're building. That ensures that we continue our decades of peace without nuclear war because the submarines are unable to be found. So that assures that any country that tried to attack,
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Why are submarines essential for U.S. strategic deterrence and global access?
0:00–4:07
2
How did the Cold War’s end reduce America’s submarine manufacturing capacity?
4:07–5:49
3
What does the Navy need in terms of labor hours to sustain the Columbia‑class program?
5:49–10:00
4
Why is software‑driven manufacturing the key to closing the industrial‑capacity gap?
10:00–14:28
5
How does Hadrian’s Factory 4 differ from traditional shipyards?
14:28–19:33
6
What are the biggest workforce and skill challenges for submarine production?
19:33–23:48
Speakers
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