Ready, Aim, Shut Down

As military bases brace for bad news, three naval shipyards fight a fierce rearguard action

The gravely serious man in glasses and a dark suit moves and speaks like the polished trial lawyer he once was. In the dank humidity of an auditorium in the Massachusetts State House, he makes his case insistently, weaving numbers and exposition into a seamless argument. In the future, he says, 60% of the U.S. Navy's shipyard work will involve nuclear-powered vessels. More than half the ships in for repair will be submarines; most of those will be Los Angeles- class attack submarines. "The most experienced shipyard in servicing Los Angeles subs," he declaims, "is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Charleston has...

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