United States cannot afford to lose Bath Iron Works

A top Pentagon official is now saying a plan to have Navy destroyers built at a single shipyard needs more study. While that statement is hardly definitive, the news that the Navy might be backing away from a decision that could spell the death of Bath Iron Works is good for Maine and the nation. A plan to have all of the Navy’s new DD(X) destroyers built at one shipyard would likely shift all the work for that vital project to the Northrop Grumman Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. It is a plan based on one simple and all-powerful rationale — money.