HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney is pushing back on a government study reporting that shortcomings at shipyard repair and maintenance yards are creating years of delay and billions in costs at a time when the U.S. Navy is racing to accelerate expansion of the country’s submarine fleet.

In a letter to colleagues, the 2nd District Democrat and influential voice on military shipbuilding, acknowledges that the report earlier this summer by the Government Accountability Office highlights “disturbing delays in submarine maintenance” that hinder “the undersea fleet’s availability at a time when the need for persistent deterrence capability is critical.”

But Courtney also contends that the GAO undercounted the number of U.S. submarines now capable of attack missions and failed to account for the acceleration of the submarine maintenance pace resulting from multibillion-dollar investments in U.S. shipyards and an agreement by Australia to spend another $8.5 billion on a forward-based repair yard for U.S. attack submarines in that country.

Questions about sub maintenance arose in Congress during talks on record spending on the U.S. fleet of new generation Virginia Class attack submarines. In July the Pentagon awarded the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Groton, its general contractor on the Virginia program, $76.6 billion in contracts, $42 billion for nine more Virginia class attack submarines, $29.5 billion for five more Columbia class ballistic missile submarines and another $5 billion for shipyard improvements planned to speed production, which already is moving at an unprecedented pace.

The report suggested that, while Congress and the Navy race to expand a submarine fleet that has been neglected for more than a generation, an unacceptable number of boats are out of service at repair docks waiting for maintenance because they are no longer certified for normal operation after extended periods at sea.

The attack fleet has become a defense priority as a balance to China’s rapid naval expansion and its aggressive moves in the Indo-Pacific. The GAO reported that Virginia class attack submarines, with missile capability, give the U.S. an “asymmetric” tactical advantage across a variety of missions, including intelligence gathering.

“These capabilities ensure attack submarines are some of the most requested assets by the global combatant commanders,” the report said.

Unlike surface ships, such as aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers that enter an 8-month maintenance period at the end of three year deployments, attack subs repeat 18-month operational cycles three or four times before a maintenance period that can last up to three years. As a result of the extraordinary pressures of repeated deployments, maintenance requirements can approach an overhaul.

Over the last 10 years, the U.S. Navy has lost more than 15,000 operational days due to maintenance delays and downtime involving attack submarines, according to the GAO. That lost time breaks down into $3.4 billion in crew and ship costs.

Those maintenance and repair delays have been backlogged since 2008. Over the same period, the report said the government-operated shipyards that do nearly all sub maintenance completed only 11% of the work on time.

Another contributor to down time and associated costs is what the report calls “inactive idle time” – the time submarines at the end of their operational lives await dry dock space and decommissioning, the most significant part of which is removal of nuclear reactor fuel.

Subs scheduled for decommissioning spent more than 3,000 days waiting for dry dock space over the last decade, according to the GAO. The delays were responsible for significant costs because crews are required to remain aboard to maintain reactors. Once decommissioning begins, the ships take drydock space from operational subs waiting for maintenance.

Courtney, ranking member on the Seapower subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote to colleagues of the GAO study, “The report’s data on attack submarines’ lack of availability confirms what the committee suspected.”

But, he wrote, “there are a few items in the report, however, that as a member who has been closely tracking submarine construction and repairs, I believe should be brought to members’ attention.“ In addition to Electric Boat, Courtney’s eastern Connecticut district includes the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, also in Groton, which is home port to 15 attack submarines.

He wrote that the GAO undercounted the size of the U.S. attack submarine fleet by failing to include Seawolf class ships — the class of attack submarines that preceded the Virginia class — and Ohio class ballistic missile submarines that have been converted to carry Tomahawk missiles. If recently commissioned Virginia class submarines are added, the attack fleet reaches 52 ships as opposed to the 44 cited in the GAO study.

More subs means more maintenance. But Courtney wrote that over the last 8 years, Congress has spent $21 billion to recapitalize the four government shipyards in New Hampshire, Washington, California and Hawaii that perform more than 90% of the submarine repair, maintenance and decommissioning work.

As a result of new dry docks at the shipyards at Portsmouth and Peal Harbor, two early generation Virginia class submarines — the USS Colorado and North Dakota — were returned to service ahead of schedule earlier this year after maintenance, Courtney wrote.

Under the AUKUS security agreement — an agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States negotiated around the deployment of U.S. sub capability in the Indo-Pacific — Australia is building a forward-deployed repair yard at Henderson in Western Australia.

“This location will provide relief for both Pearl Harbor and Puget Sound shipyards, as well as reduce transit time for U.S. subs in need of repairs and overhaul,” Courtney said.

The Virginia class submarine Vermont already has undergone maintenance in Australia, which has agreed to buy at least three Virginia-class submarines under the AUKUS agreement. U.S. submarines will begin joint rotations out of Australia next year.

Courtney also urged the Navy to develop ways to decommission and refit ships at pier side in order to free dry dock space.

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