As a naval shipyard commander, my mandate from Navy leadership is straightforward: return warships to the fleet as quickly as possible. Neither my shipyard nor many other public and private shipyards are consistently fulfilling that mission.Public shipyard availabilities — the scheduled periods during which nuclear-powered warships are taken out of operational service for maintenance, repair, or modernization — are often delayed well beyond their original timelines. A recent Government Accountability Office report highlighted that over the past 10 years, maintenance delays for attack submarines have resulted in 15,000 lost operational days and an estimated $3.4 billion in costs. This problem of maintenance The post The Tyranny of Shipyard Cost-Plus Contracting appeare