Federal funding totaling $100 million will be provided to the Maine-based Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) thanks to efforts led by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
The national security supplemental legislation that recently passed Congress and became law last week includes the PNSY funding, which will be used to cover additional costs related to the expansion of the shipyard’s Multi-Mission Drydock #1.
“The talented men and women at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard play an important role in maintaining our Navy fleet and enhancing our national security,” Sen. Collins said in an April 29 statement.
“I have long advocated for the Navy to address the modernization needs at PNSY, and this funding for [the drydock] is critical to increasing the shipyard’s capacity and capability to accommodate additional submarines,” she added.
The PNSY funding is part of $3.3 billion included in the supplemental package to strengthen the U.S. submarine industrial base and to enable increased production while also supporting the AUKUS agreement, a trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific region between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
AUKUS is, in part, an arrangement for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines with the help of the U.S. and the UK that will further enhance security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, according to the senator’s statement.
Sen. Collins previously also secured key funding to support drydock repairs and other projects at PNSY in the fiscal year 2024 defense appropriations bill that was signed into law in March, her staff said.