What is the difference between a Naval base and a Navy Yard? I tried the interwebs but I didn't get anything concrete so I figured I'd ask our more aquatic brethren.

Posted on Jan 1, 2016

What is the difference between a Naval base and a Navy Yard?

SPC (Join to see)

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I tried the interwebs but I didn't get anything concrete so I figured I'd ask our more aquatic brethren.

Posted in these groups: Navy

Navy

Posted 9 y ago

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Responses: 5

SCPO Charles Thomas "Tom" Canterbury

Posted 9 y ago

A Navy Base is like any other base. Navy Yards are where extensive ship maintenance takes place, like a dry dock availability.

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SCPO Charles Thomas "Tom" Canterbury

9 y

They no longer do it there. Kinda like Millington, TN used to be a big airfield. Now they have the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) and the city of Millington has the old rinky-dink airfield.

And then there are outliers...

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SSgt Jim Gilmore

9 y

I would have thought the exact opposite with the yard being land locked...

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CDR (Join to see)

9 y

MAJ Carl Ballinger - The Washington Navy Yard used to be a production yard (built ships) but you are correct, that doesn't happen there now, mostly Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and program management activities.

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PO3 Michael James

9 y

Right to the point..

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CAPT Kevin B.

Posted 9 y ago

OK, here's the real skinny. "Yards" or "Shipyards" are a completely separate entity from "bases" in both ownership and financing. Whereas bases are funded through the Navy budgeting process, yards are a business entity that gets paid to overhaul and maintain ships under the Navy Working Capital Fund which is a subset of the Defense Business Operating Fund. So the Navy must budget for and get appropriations to buy the services from the Shipyards. Shipyards belong to the Naval Sea Systems Command. Bases typically belong to the Navy Installations Command.

Another piece of trivia. The Trident SSBNs do not belong to the Navy. They belong to the Strategic Systems Programs Office. SSPO pays the Navy to man and operate the SSBNs as well as pays the Shipyards to do maintenance on them. So in reality the Navy doesn't budget for SSBNs, SSPO figures it out. It is a separate appropriation. The Navy and Air Force do not budget for strategic weapons, Department of Energy does. They never belong to the services but rather the services have "custody" of them and have to give them back to DoE.

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PO1 John Juarez

9 y

Now I'm puzzled. Naval vessels only get the USS designation upon Commisioning which is after all acceptance test by the Navy. How is it they are commisioned, maintained, provisioned, etc all by Navy, yet are funded by the Office you stated? Why, when I was repairing Tridents in Kings Bay, did I get folks in the Sheetmetal shop cumshawing stuff because they had run out of OPTAR funds (I think it was, hell its been over 20 yrs)

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CAPT Kevin B.

9 y

OPTAR is the appropriated funds the Navy gets to pay for yard services. Never enough so that's why the cumshaw. Every other year the DBOF/NWCF entities price out their costs for the next two years into various rates. The the bosses decide they don't like the rates and then require the yards to charge less. That's why the maintenance of the yards themselves are way behind. Then the same bosses decide the Navy side won't get enough to buy the services that they already underpriced. So there isn't much "business" but rather gamesmanship going on with the Navy overall suffering more every year for everything.
BTW, shipyard commanders beat up the workers to do more with nothing because chasing a Star is their priority and "production" is the Sacred Cow.

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