U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe, Susan Collins (R-ME), Judd Gregg and John Sununu (R-NH) announced today that the Navy will establish a detachment of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS) in Southern California. The new PNS maintenance shop, to be located in San Diego, will take over submarine maintenance activities previously performed by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
“It is exciting to see that the Navy continues to recognize the talents and skills of the Portsmouth team,” the Senators said in a joint statement. “Just two weeks ago, the Chief Naval Officer visited the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and was able to see firsthand the quality of work and character of the PNS workforce. The Navy clearly understands that if they want the job done on time and on budget – they need look no further than to the workforce at Portsmouth.”
Navy officials decided to transfer workloads to PNS in order to leverage its expertise in submarine maintenance and to improve the stability of submarine maintenance to the fleet. Navy officials state that as many as 70 or more additional civilian maintenance positions will be required to support the new maintenance workload for the yard. PNS will assume maintenance responsibilities in San Diego on February 1, 2008.
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