pROGRAM mANAGEMENT OFFICE 555 (SIOP)
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The Navy's four public shipyards perform a vital role in national defense by maintaining the nuclear-powered fleet in order to provide combat-ready ships. Originally built in the 19th and 20th centuries to build sail- and conventionally powered ships, the Navy's public shipyards are not efficiently configured to maintain and modernize nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines. With the Navy's needed focus on operations, the aging shipyards have been unable to adequately sustain and optimize their facilities, utilities, dry docks, equipment and information technology infrastructure. These inefficiencies and obsolete facilities result in higher maintenance costs, schedule risks and reliability issues.
To create the shipyards that our Nation needs requires making significant investments to modernize dry docks, optimize industrial processes and modernize standard equipment to bring these critical industrial sites to modern standards.
The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP) is a comprehensive, long-term recapitalization effort that is delivering integrated investments in infrastructure and industrial plant equipment at the Navy’s four public shipyards, expanding shipyard capacity and optimizing shipyard configuration to meet the Navy’s nuclear-powered fleet maintenance requirements. Recapitalizing the shipyards' century-old infrastructure increases maintenance throughput and improves quality of service for the Navy’s 37,000 shipyard employees.
The Navy established the SIOP program office in May 2018. SIOP is a centrally managed program led by Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) with support from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC). NAVSEA is the operating agent and the technical authority for all four shipyards, executing the capital equipment program. NAVFAC provides facilities engineering and construction authority, handles regulatory compliance requirements, and retains head-of-contracting-activity authority for facilities and dry dock investments. CNIC is the Navy's shore integrator.
SIOP’s North Star:
Enable increased nuclear-fleet maintenance throughput by recapitalizing shipyard infrastructure and equipment required to conduct scheduled depot maintenance and by reconfiguring infrastructure layout to deliver reductions in availability durations.
Q1: In practical terms, why was it necessary to establish the Program Executive Office Infrastructure and Expeditionary (PEO IE) over the existing Program Management Office 555 (PMO 555) Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP)?
A1: The standup of PEO IE ensures that SIOP’s once-in-a-century recapitalization effort has the necessary discipline and synchronization in defining and executing the multiple major construction efforts within the program while maintaining uninterrupted support to the fleet. PEO IE was established as a NAVFAC-affiliated PEO. PEO IE and the PMO 555 SIOP are implementing agile acquisition methodologies to coordinate the programmatic execution of this complex effort. PEO IE also remains integrated with the Naval Sustainment System – Shipyards (NSS-SY) efforts as the lead for the NSS-SY Infrastructure Pillar. NSS-SY is the Navy’s enterprise approach to identify and execute initiatives that improve shipyard operations to increase capacity with more efficient maintenance throughput for nuclear ships and submarines.
Q2: The initial 2018 Report to Congress projected SIOP as a $21-billion, 20-year program. What is today’s estimate?
A2: Numerous information points and learning tell us the early program estimates will be higher than initially projected in 2018. We are much farther along in our planning and designs, but additional items impact the program’s ability provide a full cost estimate at this time. These include:
• Dramatically changed economic conditions – first major COVID-19 impacts affected the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) Dry Dock 1 (DD1) project.
• Continued infrastructure degradation.
• The extent of facility and shop reconfiguration, which result from completion of the Area Development Plans (ADPs) that are currently underway.
• Fidelity in sequencing and interdependency of investments – as a result of master planning efforts associated with the first ADP at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNS).
Q3: SIOP is primarily focused on dry dock construction at the public shipyards, and optimization is not being given enough of a priority. What is the program doing to prioritize optimization efforts?
A3: Dry docks are critical to conducting maintenance availabilities. The Navy is prioritizing those dry dock efforts that are required to execute planned availabilities. Infrastructure and capital equipment efforts will follow, as they remain integral to SIOP’s overall success in developing 21st Century shipyards for the Navy.
Q4: Is Line of Effort (LOE) 1 prioritized over LOE 2 and 3?
A4: No. The three LOEs are mutually supporting, not mutually exclusive. While LOE 1 started first, it was because LOE 1 is focused on the construction or modernization of dry docks. These projects had a known requirement early on, while LOE 2 comprises the studies, modeling and simulation at the shipyards; first at the facilities level and then at the equipment level to determine the path toward optimization of the shipyard activities. The planning and project development for many of these projects is currently underway; and over time, we will see the majority of the work shift from LOE 1 to LOEs 2 and 3.
Q5: What is SIOP doing to de-conflict ongoing and future projects with maintenance availabilities at the shipyards?
A5: PEO IE/PMO 555 SIOP coordinates with Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and shipyard leaders on a regular basis to ensure projects are sequenced to de-conflict with maintenance availabilities. The program also supports ongoing NAVSEA transformation efforts such as NSS-SY. The program also remains closely aligned to the fleet maintenance scheduling process by attending the annual fleet scheduling conference and also has a program office at each shipyard that engages directly with shipyard leadership and production teams to ensure alignment of construction and maintenance schedules.
Q6: Given the magnitude of the SIOP construction projects, how does this impact the shipyard workers (how does this impact NAVSEA’s workload)?
A6: SIOP works at all echelons to coordinate and integrate the workload of the construction projects with the work taking place within the shipyards to support submarine and aircraft carrier maintenance availabilities.
Q7: How does SIOP improve resiliency and mitigate environmental risks at the shipyards?
A7: All SIOP construction projects will be planned, designed, and constructed in accordance with the Administration’s objectives for climate change, sea level rise, seismic vulnerability, and energy efficiency/resiliency. The majority of the Department of the Navy’s (DoN) existing infrastructure at the four naval shipyards was constructed to outdated codes and is, therefore, at a greater risk to climate change than new buildings that have demonstrated much higher survivability. The investment in America’s four public shipyards enhances the sustainability and resiliency of these major infrastructure facilities, mitigating the effect of adverse environmental conditions such as sea level rise, flooding and severe storm, or seismic events. These improvements will address the disproportionately high and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts on disadvantaged communities. SIOP leverages the on-going DoN mission to improve installation resilience in the face of climate change. These facilities will meet the needs of future shipyard maintenance, while also improving the facilities to reduce the Navy’s impact on the environment and the local community.