인력난에 시달리는 미 조선산업과 미해군

[위종민]

미 의회조삭구과 미 해군대학의 연구원들이 미해군 승조원뿐만 아니라 조선산업 전체의 인력난에 대해 대처할 필요가 있다고 지난 목요일 주장했습니다. 

미해군 뿐만 아니라 일본, 호주, 영국과 같은 주요 동맹국 해군들도 승조원 충원 문제를 겪고 있고, 무인수상함에 대한 질문에 답하면서 사람이 모자란다는 사실을 깨닫게 되면 향후 해군의 모습은 지금과는 많이 달라질 거라고 주장했습니다. 

조선산업에 대해선 상업용 조선 부문에 연방보조금을 부활시키면 군용 특수선 조선부문에 종사하는 인력이 이직할 가능성이 있어 해군에 도움이 될 것 같지 않다고 주장했고, 상선과 군함을 만드는 데에는 서로 다른 기술이 필요해 외국에서는 대부분의 경우 두 인력을 분리한다고 하네요.

근본적으로 조선산업은 암호화폐나 사이버 분야처럼 젊은이들을 끌어들이는 밝게 빛나는 사업이 아니고, 해군 함정 건조에 드는 인건비가 총 건조 가격의 40%에 달해 직원 임금상승-복리후생 개선은 건조비용상승 요인이 되며, 잠수함 용접공과 같은 고급인력을 양성하려면 긴 시간과 돈이 투자되야 한다고 합니다. 

https://news.usni.org/2024/04/02/navy-should-put-more-emphasis-on-personnel-in-ship-design-says-analyst

Navy Should Put More Emphasis on Personnel in Ship Design, Says Analyst

JOHN GRADY

APRIL 2, 2024 12:15 PM

Sailors stand in formation during a change of command ceremony aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Howard (DDG-83), March 14, 2024. US Navy Photo

The Navy should “go back to the front end,” thinking about the people needed for building, crewing and maintaining vessels, not just potential threats, a senior naval analyst advised Thursday.

Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Ronald O’Rourke of the Congressional Research Service said “the Navy is facing challenges … in pretty much everything.”

In answering a question about uncrewed vessels in the fleet, he said by realizing “people are scarce,” the result will be “a Navy that looks different” from today’s, in which the emphasis has been placed on looking outward.

Jonathan Caverley of the Naval Warfare College said requirements such as ship maintenance are “not something you can just do from Arizona,” like piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Both agreed that all the services are facing recruiting problems. In addition, key allies such as Japan and Australia and increasingly the United Kingdom are also having crewing problems in their navies.

O’Rourke noted the Navy’s Large Unmanned Surface Vessel [LUSV] program is “trying to mature the technology” before committing to specific designs. He said possible options could include partially manned systems as proposed by Hudson Institute, or adopting a “kit of parts” approach that organizes individual parts and material into standardized assembly.

“Upfront end-to-end design work” should lead to faster construction and “be generally right” about future requirements, O’Rourke said. He said more details were available in his remarks at the 2023 U.S. Naval Institute Defense Forum.

Caverley said “the political-economic process of building a ship is different from any other” Pentagon buy. “You really need a grand coalition in defense and related industries to build and maintain” Navy ships. “The timelines are much longer; [they are] much more expensive; and you will have [them] for a generation” to operate and maintain.

Saying “we’re pouring a lot of money into the submarine industrial base” and surface ship industrial base, O’Rourke commented he wasn’t sure whether reviving federal subsidies to rebuild the commercial shipbuilding sector would benefit the Navy in the long run.

Instead, it might set off a competition among public and private yards that build warships and private yards that would build commercial vessels and already build tugs, barges, supply vessels and oil rigs for skilled tradesmen.

That has been happening along the Gulf Coast already as work orders for Navy and Coast Guard ships have increased in the region. Workers had moved, as a matter of practice, from one yard to another for steady paychecks, O’Rourke said.

“Different skills are needed” to build and repair the two types of ships. Even overseas, shipbuilders in most cases separate the two work forces. China is an exception, but “but it doesn’t mean it’s an efficient model,” he added.

O’Rourke said shipyards in Japan, for example, doing naval work, have “a steady drumbeat” of construction, not the up-and-down, year-to-year approach path the United States follows. The Japanese approach allows it to increase the size of its fleet over time.”

Yet Caverley noted that like the United States, Japan and Korea are having major problems filling shipyard jobs. Both are using guest workers from countries as different as inland mountainous Nepal and Vietnam on the South China Sea to address that need.

O’Rourke said “maritime industries are not one of those ‘bright shining objects,’” like crypto or cyber that attract young people. He and Caverley added shipbuilding and repair remains heavily concentrated on the coasts. “There’s not of consciousness [in the American public] of us being an island nation,” said O’Rourke.

To build construction capacity where needed, the Navy and defense industry need to look inland to firms that can provide more than parts needed for construction but not usually associated with maritime construction. Foreign shipbuilders have invested in American yards. Austal and Fincantieri are operating in the U.S. military shipbuilding market through U.S.-based affiliates.

Using smaller yards for smaller vessels is another option to expand building and repair capacity for a growing fleet.

On the workforce, O’Rourke said, “Sub welders are regarded as the long poles in the tent” in having to spend time and money to build those workers’ skills to a journeyman level. He said successfully recruiting more and younger workers is not going to immediately solve the skills problem as Navy orders grow. They will “have a long learning curve.” In addition, those younger workers “may not be a lifer” in the maritime trades, possibly leaving after they have reached proficiency.

The result could be a continuing green labor force requiring constant training and slow production.

Increased pay for yard workers and improved quality-of-life benefits, such as better housing in coastal areas, are needed, but are not guarantees that those craftsmen will stay. O’Rourke added that the personnel costs in building a Navy ship is put at 40 percent of its building price.

Higher wages and improved benefits will cause shipbuilding costs to rise.

[사처포(곽명기)]

그러니깐
한국에 원잠 발주하라고 ! 크 크

[위종민]

선체랑 기관, 의장만이라도 외국에 발주하는 방법을 고려해봐야 될 것 같은데요.

[ssn688]

단기적으론 의회 고집 꺾고(가능할지?? ㅋ) 한국과 일본에 발주해야 하고, 장기적으론 중국이 때리기 힘든 데... (인도는 가망이 없어 보이고)남미 같은 데 조선소 육성하는 수밖에 없겠네요. 그것조차 미국 업체가 해낼 것 같지 않고, 현대가 페루 군함건조에 합작하는 사례를 장려해야 하겠습니다.

[위종민]

일단 호위함급 이하 2선급 함정들은 외국에 발주하는 걸 진지하게 고려해야 하는 게 아닌가 싶어요.