The US Navy plans to reopen four dry docks previously closed due to seismic hazards for submarine repairs.
The US Navy is planning to reopen four submarine repair dry docks located at shipyards in Washington state. This is reported by the military-analytical magazine Defense News. The first dock will start operating in April, the second in May, and the third is scheduled to start operating in June this year.
The Navy suspended operations on drydocks four, five and six at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and drydock at the Trident plant repair facility in Bangor at the end of January this year. The reason was the poor readiness of shipyards even for minor seismic tremors.
At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Adm. Mike Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, said the biggest dock renovation work is being done at the Bangor shipyard, which maintains and repairs Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. According to him, they should be completed in June this year.
At the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where aircraft carriers and attack submarines are repaired and upgraded, work is being done on drydock sites near which the submarines' nuclear reactors will be located. According to the admiral, the reconstruction of one dock should be completed in April, the other - in May. Gilday did not say when the fourth dock will be launched.
The Navy has requested an additional $300 million from Congress to improve the seismic stability of the four docks.
Gilday told congressmen that the Navy plans to survey other docks in the Pacific Northwest to eliminate seismic vulnerabilities. The work has just begun and it is too early to talk about the timing of their implementation and the amount of funding required for this, the admiral added.
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