Shipbuilders,

Welcome back, and happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a relaxing and safe holiday. To the approximately 650 of you who worked over the holiday – thank you for your flexibility and dedication to our fellow shipbuilders and to the U.S. Navy.

We have another busy and challenging year ahead of us, and we are already off to a strong start. We will continue tackling critical Navy programs milestones, including delivering the Virginia-class submarine New Jersey, redelivering USS George Washington following her refueling and complex overhaul, and fully implementing the construction operating system (COS) and other production processes to improve our performance. This work is vital to providing the support our Navy needs at a time when we, as a nation, need it most.

Safety of our people and our plant will be key to our success. This includes fire prevention. Throughout the week, we will conduct yard-wide Safety Stand-ups. This is an opportunity for teams across the shipyard to have focused safety discussions, ensure workspaces are safe after the break and share lessons learned for work safety. As always, safety remains our top priority, and we will share more information in the coming weeks about a new cleanliness campaign and other initiatives aimed at keeping everyone healthy and injury free.

Next week, we will participate in our annual NAVSEA evaluation. For those of you who have not been involved in an audit before, a Naval Reactors team will come to the shipyard for a week and conduct an extensive assessment of our radiological programs. They will meet with shipbuilders across the organization and observe work processes, ensuring we understand our procedures and are following them. The Naval Reactors team’s observations and recommended opportunities for improvement are vital input as we continue to improve our overall performance.

Working to our nuclear standards sets us apart as a business, and as we begin our 137th year, I want to thank you for answering the call to serve our nation as only we can, and continuing our legacy of “Always Good Ships.”

Respectfully,
Jennifer Boykin
President, Newport News Shipbuilding