CBO report details historical price differences of LA sub maintenance at private, public shipyards

The Congressional Budget Office today published a report detailing how it determined depot maintenance for Los Angeles-class submarines has historically been less expensive at private shipyards than in public shipyards.

The 30-page report builds on a dozen slides CBO published last September that outlined preliminary findings leading to that conclusion.

The new report states the difference between the two analyses is the size of the cost gaps in recent years.

"The 2018 analysis showed that costs at private shipyards remained lower in recent years than costs at public shipyards, whereas the gap has roughly disappeared in this analysis (for overhauls after 2007)," the report states.

"The reason for that change is that CBO received updated data from the Navy," the report continues.

Auditors write that following the 2018 analysis, the Navy altered its own analytical approach, which resulted in the service finding that docking selected restricted availabilities costs at private and public shipyards have been nearly the same in recent years, a "result that is broadly consistent with CBO’s analysis of recent DSRAs."