BATH

Many of the 200 people employed by the U.S. Navy in its Supervisor of Shipbuilding operation spend their days at Bath Iron Works.

SUPSHIP, as it’s known, has an operations center across Washington Street from BIW. Employees there work in engineering, contracting, quality assurance, program management, payroll and human relations.

These civilian Navy employees are often confused with BIW workers.

“Even our family members say, ‘Oh, you work for BIW’,” said Kristin Mason, public affairs officer at SUPSHIP. “No, we don’t work for BIW. We work in BIW buildings, but nobody in this building is a BIW employee.

“We’re Navy employees who ensure contracts are done according to specifications,” Mason said. “We are the Navy’s waterfront eyes and ears. We are the enforcers, but we also like to think that we are able to help the shipbuilders.”

SUPSHIP’s Bath workforce illustrates how federal cutbacks — due to go into effect starting today — could affect both national defense and the local economy.

The cuts — known as “sequestration” — are likely to be triggered today, with defense programs taking half of the $85 billion hit by Sept. 30.

As one U.S. Navy official said, “It really isn’t good for anybody.”

Effects by April

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello said this week that, absent a late budget deal, furloughs would begin affecting civilian employees such as those at SUPSHIP as soon as April, by forcing them to take one day a week off.

“We recognize the impact that’s going to have on them,” Servello said. “That adds up to 20 percent of their pay. It isn’t good for the local economy, it really isn’t good for anybody.”

Servello said there are two issues at hand — the lack of an appropriation from Congress, as well as sequestration.

Both leave the Navy $5 billion short of revenue it needs to operate, he said.

“How do we mitigate that?” Servello asked. “We’re forced to do cuts, and cost savings, including aircraft carrier deployment and furloughing civilians.”

Nationally, nearly 800,000 civilian workers could be forced to take one day of leave per week without pay.

That includes SUPSHIP Bath’s 200 workers. The furloughs would start in the last week of April and remain in effect for 22 weeks.

Travel at SUPSHIP might be curtailed, and there could be a cutback on computers, Servello said.

“All of this comes together and creates a perfect storm,” he said. “There is a ripple effect with contracts.”

SUPSHIP

Navy Capt. Robert A. Crowe, the commanding officer of the Bath operations, oversees the construction of U.S. Navy ships by private shipbuilders in Bath, San Diego and Marinette, Wis.

Crowe began his Navy career as a Surface Warfare Officer aboard USS Schenectady, where he served from 1987 to 1990. Crowe was designated an engineering duty officer in 1998.

Under his command, 55 to 60 engineers review BIW drawings, witness testing and resolve technical issues.

SUPSHIP Bath has about 40 employees in quality assurance and another 40 who manage Navy contracts.

“Our mission is administering and managing Navy contracts with our shipbuilder partners,” Mason said. “It’s a myriad of tasks because we have so many different functions here.”

Rick Warren of Freeport, who started at the Bath facility in 1983, knows all about the “myriad of tasks” as SUPSHIP’s waterfront chief engineer.

“This is a multi-site, multiprogram organization,” Warren said.

Most of Warren’s crew — 46, to be exact — work in Bath. SUPSHIP engineers do design reviews in their facility, and are in contact with shipyard workers daily.

“They know we’re the local Navy presence,” Warren said. “We’ve grown into a relationship with our shipbuilders to basically have no surprises. We work with them on the waterfront.”

SUPSHIP Bath’s 30 quality assurance specialists also spend most of their time on the waterfront.

“They inspect the product, and they inspect the process,” Warren said.

Currently, BIW is working on DDG-115 and -116 and DDG- 1000, -1001 and -1002 destroyers.

“Every one of those ships is in a different stage of construction,” Warren said.

When SUPSHIP does its job right, “the Navy should expect to receive a completed ship ready for deployment,” he said. “We’re kind of the insurance agent for the taxpayer.”

Warren described the SUPSHIP relationship with shipyard workers as “arm’s length.” In other words, they don’t chum around at lunch.

“We work for the government,” he said. “We want to retain a professional but arm’s-length relationship. We have legal counsel come in every year to advise us on standards of conduct.”

In addition to SUPSHIP, the Bath facility is home to employees of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, and 15 people who work for the Fleet Logistics Center which outfits the war ships with parts and consumables.

History

Bath Iron Works, of course, goes back a long way.

In 1862, the Bath firm of Larrabee and Allen constructed two wooden gunboats for the Navy. BIW built its first ships for the Navy, two steel gunboats, in 1893.

SUPSHIP Bath traces its origin to 1931, when BIW was constructing its first post- World War I destroyers.

In 1991, SUPSHIP Brooklyn and SUPSHIP Boston joined Bath as resident detachments, and subsequently disestablished as a result of downsizing of this Naval Shore establishment.

lgrard@timesrecord.com

¦ “SUPSHIP” AT A GLANCE — Established in Bath in 1931 as the “Superintendent of Construction” — Became “Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion & Repair, US Navy” in 1940 — 29 Commanding Officers — Delivered 192-plus USN ships in 14 classes — Executed more than 120 depot repair/upkeep periods — Current Commanding Officer: Capt. Robert Crowe, arrived July 2011 — SUPSHIP has 200 U.S. Department of Navy civilians and 13 active-duty Navy military at the Bath location.