Upgrades in the Navy’s shipyard on Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam are underway.
More than $6 billion in military construction will occur in Hawaiʻi over the next five years, Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks said.
About $3.6 billion is going into the Navy's shipyard, for upgrades including a new dry dock for Virginia-class and future fast-attack submarines, as well as updating 20-year-old temporary buildings. It represents the largest military construction project in DOD history.
The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility serves as the state’s largest industrial employer. Combined, the repair and maintenance facility employs more than 7,100 military and civilian employees on the 148-acre lot.
"We talked a lot about productivity," Hick said. "Quality of life, obviously, that's good for the workforce, but what's good for the workforce is good for productivity: better parking, faster commute times, and making sure they have bathrooms and ventilation and places to eat. All of that seems to be built into how they're thinking through this."
Hicks toured the facility Friday alongside Rep. Ed Case and Sen. Mazie Hirono.
Hirono said she's been pushing for additional shipyard infrastructure funding throughout her time in Congress.
"Modernizing the four public shipyards, which includes Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, is critical to our national security and the readiness of our military,” Hirono said. “Dry Dock 5 and the waterfront production facility are essential to the repair and maintenance of the new Virginia Class of submarines."
Hicks said optimizing the shipyard will hopefully improve issues surrounding scheduling and maintenance backlogs.
"That's going to help us get submarines out, repaired and out the door and maintained," Hicks said. "But it's also good to make sure that that workforce is having the quality of life that they deserve."
The latest upgrades keep rising sea-level and natural disasters in mind.
"We're all about making sure those warfighters downrange here in the Indo-Pacific, of course, the region of greatest concern for us right now that we can deliver that military effects that they're called on to be able to do, and we have to be able to do that in the face of climate change," Hicks said.
