Roughead: Bath shipyard an American treasure

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Roughead: Bath shipyard an American treasure
By David Sharp - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 18:51:21 EDT

BATH, Maine — Bath Iron Works, the Navy shipyard once thought to be expendable because of excess shipbuilding capacity, has impressed the Navy by boosting efficiency to the point the highest-ranking officer in the Navy now views Bath as setting the standard for the industry.

Adm. Gary Roughead said he came away from his first visit to the Bath shipyard as chief of naval operations last January with a message that he took back to Washington: “We can’t lose Bath.”

“When you get an organization that is that committed, that is that effective, that efficient, you really have to consider it an American treasure,” Roughead told The Associated Press on Saturday after the christening of the Wayne E. Meyer, a Navy destroyer.

It’s a remarkable change from a decade ago when some top Navy officials felt that it was inefficient and costly to have two shipyards building destroyers.

Back then, Bath Iron Works’ performance was lagging behind its larger competitor, Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard, on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Some in Navy circles viewed Bath as small and inefficient and not providing anything that Ingalls couldn’t do for less.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_roughead_bath_102108/%2e