I happened to see the commercial (and here is a second one) just now and noticed it was sponsored by something called BlueForge Alliance.
The worker shortages are real and worsening. I’d just like to say that first seeing the thread title: “Steve Jobs is dead I think so how is he building submarines like Elmo?”
Yeah. It’s been that way for quite some time. I don’t work on submarines proper but I work on submarine sonar systems so I’ve spent plenty of time in shipyards and at intermediate maintenance facilities, both as a sailor and in post-service life.
Everyone is struggling for talent–and I mean real talent. Honestly, more yards and more bodies aren’t going to proportionally ramp up your ability to build submarines. One of the bigger problems is that you need very specialized skills to solve a lot of the problems that crop up, and these are skills that take years to develop and that you probably aren’t going to learn outside of OJT.
You do have to cast a wide net, get a lot of people and hope you get some real gems in there–the people who really do solve problems. (I would imagine many industries face the same issues–there’s honestly a core group of people who genuinely make things happen and everyone else who kinda keeps things moving but really don’t do much to make it over some of the more complicated hurdles.)
We went to sea with Skip Bowman and… I won’t lie, he was a cool cat. Salty as hell but really cool with most of us coners. We were first of the class so it was often a big dog and pony show, but that’s one thing I noticed about most of the four-stars I met. Most of them seemed like genuinely decent guys, and I always felt like that was probably because they’ve made it. They’re not really in the rat race anymore.
(Now, while most of us coners got along with Bowman, I’m sure you could have turned coal to diamond in the nuke buttholes.)
Spending a few days inside an SSN, SSBN or SSGN would be a dream come true for me, alas, other than becoming a journalist, I don’t see a way it ever happens.
After you’ve banged your head on a few bulkheads, had to share a ‘hot bunk’ with two other people on rotating watches, and been awakened by an unscheduled fire drill, you might change your mind about that dream. And the smell that sticks to you after you disembark and through the next three showers…
Stranger
(Edit: I meant to add a new comment but somehow it became an edit of the previous comment)
Check, not to mention banging your forehead on the metal rack light in your bunk with the inexplicable sharp edge a few inches over your head. If you wake up forgetting you are in a submarine rack (i.e. sleeping bunk) and sit up, you are guaranteed to hit your forehead on the rack light. Some sailors had permanent marks on their foreheads from repeatedly doing this.
Thankfully, I never had to do this. Rank hath its privileges and all that, even my fairly low rank as a junior officer. The absolute worst racks were used by the most-junior sailors who shared the overflow bunks that were strapped on top of torpedos in the torpedo room. So me sleeping in the 21-man bunk room, or later in the 9-man bunk room was nothing to complain about. I had been onboard my submarine for over a year before I finally got a rack in one of the officer staterooms (sharing with two other officers).
Check, but this leads to a philosophical question. Are they really “unscheduled” when they happen every f*cking day? 
Well, every weekday anyway. Otherwise how could you tell it was the weekend? 
Not to mention the worst aspect about life on a U.S. submarine—at least back in the 1990s—rotating watches (i.e. shifts) and a constant lack of sleep. The practices of the USN back then—at least for junior officers—was comparable to how medical residents were historically treated. I often went weeks without getting more than 2-3 hours of sleep in a row.
Ah yes, that smell. It’s particularly noticeable when you get off the boat after a deployment, throw your seabag with dirty laundry in the corner, and then open it a few days later to do laundry. The smell of amine hits you like a ton of bricks. Of course the human nose is very adaptable. You don’t notice it after being onboard for a few hours.
A few years ago I went on a tour of a sub with my son’s Boy Scout troop, some twenty years after I left the service. As soon as I started to climb down the hatch, I was hit with the familiar smell of amine, diesel, and grease. It was almost overwhelming as it brought back of flood of memories and nostalgia.
One of my favorite interchanges in the movie Das Boat occurs in the background of a scene. Two unseen submarine sailors are talking:
Sailor #1: Guess how long I’ve been wearing this shirt
Sailor #2: Since we left port
Sailor #1: No. Two weeks before!
Any reason they don’t pad those racks?
Why they didn’t pad the rack lights, you mean? I have no idea. I didn’t design the subs; I just operated them.* And I guess I just learned to be careful to not bang my head. On that or the myriad other things you could hit your head on.
This reminds me of the story of the civilian contractor who once wanted us to supply him with PPE (personal protective equipment)—including a hard hat—before he would climb down the hatch and into the submarine. On a submarine moored at a pier. Not moving.
We looked at him incredulously and told him that not only did we not have any hard hats, but that we actually went down belowdecks and took the boat to sea for months on end with no PPE. In the ocean, with rolling waves and the like.
Now that I am a civilian, I understand his mindset. But there is a world of difference between the military and the civilian workplace. For one thing, the military is exempt from OSHA regulations. [Although the U.S. Navy does have its own bastardized version called Navy Occupational Safety & Health (NAVOSH).]
*Also the U.S. Navy is very bureaucratic. Modifications to a naval vessel are generally prohibited. Which didn’t mean they didn’t happen sometimes. I remember we had to rip out some metal storage cabinets in the engine room that were installed without approval before an inspection.
As @robby observed, unauthorized modifications are prohibited (although pretty common as long as it isn’t a functional change to critical systems), and the services all have their own occupational safety regulations that are different from OSHA. A submarine is so cramped, so full of functional hardware that was not designed ergonomically, and at the beginning of a tour often packed with perishables that it would be essentially impossible to meet OSHA requirements for overhead and walkway clearances, air quality, lighting, et cetera. You either learn to be careful (and announce when you are descending a narrow companionway or going around a blind corner) or you end up banged up and maybe getting a few sutures from the ‘doc’. There is no way you are going to spend two or three months wearing a hardhat at all times. There is PPE worn in the propulsion section, although mostly related to protection from steam/heat and fire hazards, and of course flotation gear (and an immersion suit in cold water) if operating on the topdeck at sea.
Stranger
Around here, you cannot find either kind of person. Not in industry, anyway.
As I’m watching the broadcast of the baseball game at an old Negro League ballpark the ad behind home plate is for buildsubmarines dot com.
Nascar is in Chicago again this weekend so my passing interest is briefly rekindled. One of the cars is sponsored by buildsubmarines.com.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/19cxm1n/brad_keselowskis_chris_bueschers_build_submarine/
Related: The Pentagon is paying a consultant up to $2.4B to boost submarine production - Defense One
Alas, a Politics & Elections post to a (prior) FQ thread
Wishes & fishes
To be blunt, the US is a lot more worried about this than it’s allies.
Hold that thought
Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia contributes materially towards funding the program, but probably won’t get a fleet of Virginia class nuclear submarines.
Currently my understanding is the US has about 60 in service. The considered required hardware for US strategies in the Pacific theatre is for a further 20. To achieve this capability and allow for decommissioning vessels past service age, the US needs to be building 2 new submarines per annum, it’s actually achieving barely half that. Hence the sub-nautical careers promotion.
Australia will only get some material bang for their (billions of) bucks is if POTUS signs off 270 days in advance that any sale is for units in excess of US requirements. Which would not be a likely situation.
Elsewise all those AUD simply go into a US job creation scheme.
It is probably only a co-incidence that the unqualified knucklehead Hegseth is blowing hard that Australia needs increase it’s defence spending on US military hardware. For that, read tribute. Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby recently announced a review of AUKUS to ensure it’s alignment with “America First” interests. Yes, a review of a substantial project like this would be a normal move for any new US administration. But it’s also non-zero that it’s a classic Trump “shakedown” to force Australia to pay more.
Go ahead, we welcome the review. Gives us the option to opt out.
Malcolm Turnbull (radio interview 1min)
It’s the sort of extortion that any shonky New York real estate would recognise and applaud.
Australia has done well maintaining a wary, sometime fraught, non-trusting trade relationship with China. We now need to compliment that with a wary, non-trusting security alliance with the US, assuming that’s even possible.
Examples of America’s sovereign sociopathy have been fanned and escalated towards the point where the US isn’t a reliable ally, even a comprehensible ally.