The Navy Office of Community Outreach was in Lake Charles Tuesday to tell community leaders about a challenge on the homefront.

“We have to build and sustain submarines in the next 15 to 17-plus years the same way we did in the ’80s with an industrial base that’s one-third the size it was at that time. Actually, we have to build more submarines than at that time,” said Matthew Sermon, executive director of U.S. Navy PEO Strategic Submarines.

Sermon was in Lake Charles to tell about the need to grow the U.S. Navy Submarine Industrial Base workforce.

Sermon said to counter the threat from China, both the Trump and Biden administration agreed it was imperative to natural security to more than double down on submarine production and delivery.

“Undersea warfare is one of the few areas in which we retain a competitive advantage over the Chinese military,” Searmon said, “and now with Russia at war with Ukraine….

In March, the Biden administration announced a pact between it, Australia and the United Kingdom to boost the three nations’ collective deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, according to Sermon. That will require more submarines. It will mean more submarine bases and technology sharing.

The not-so-secret Navy mission requires an additional 100,000 skilled workers over the next ten years. That’s just one of the moving parts. Sermon said recruitment requires special  messaging tailored to a younger generation, better pay, removing the stigma associated with trade or industry training when compared to a four-year college degree, a diverse workforce and technology or “advanced push-button manufacturing.”  He’s going around to different cities to rally the troops.

“We are actively seeking to push components out into the additive manufacturing space, and really, quite frankly, spring up a new industrial base that is faster, more agile and can reach capacity more quickly than our traditional metal forming industrial base today.”

Sermon stopped short of saying he was scouting Lake Charles as a location for building the subs.

He did say, “I think there is an incredible opportunity here and across this region. It’s a maritime region, an industrial region, this is the kind of place, interstate highway system, industrial deep port, the Chennault International Airport’s runway, one of the longest along the Gulf Coast, as we grow that industrial base to win this strategic opportunity to deter war. Zero doubt there’s opportunity here.”

Sermon will spend the next couple of days in the area talking to stakeholders to discuss workforce and manufacturing technology in critical supply chain market sectors. So far his schedule includes a meeting with McNeese State University and Sowela Technical Community College.