Money for vessel built by Conrad is in defense bill

Staff report
Congress gave St. Mary Parish’s shipbuilding industry a multimillion stocking stuffer earlier this month.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House Dec. 10 and the Senate Dec. 17, includes $140 million for U.S. Navy vessels that are being produced by the Conrad Shipyard in Amelia.
The inclusion of funding for the Yard Repair, Berthing, Mess program is the latest in a string of wins for St. Mary’s shipbuilding industry, raising hopes that the industry can reverse a decade-long slump in employment.
Conrad completed its first YRBM vessel in July 2024, and marked the event with a ceremony that drew U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, U.S. Reps. Garret Graves and Troy Carter, and other dignitaries to Amelia with the 151-foot-long, 61-foot-high vessel looming in the background.
The vessels serve as temporary homes for sailors while their vessels are in port for repairs or maintenance.
The first of its kind, the YRBM-57 unveiled last year at Conrad, can house 300 sailors at a time. Its enlisted mess can feed 60 sailors in a single shift, and the vessel has a conference room, laundry, classrooms, lounges and a medical facility.
Conrad celebrated the event in style. YRBM-57 was decorated with red, white and blue bunting.
YRBM-57 was the first of as many as eight vessels in the class that are part of a contract with the Navy worth a reported $140 million. It was taken to Japan.
Conrad delivered YRBM-59 to the Navy in August.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, who announced the YRBM’s inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act in a press release, quizzed the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in April about potential gaps in the production of the giant vessels.
“Would you agree that a break in the production line will significantly increase future YRBM vessel material, labor, and production costs, at an estimated 15% to 20% of the follow-on lead ship cost?” asked Higgins, R-Lafayette. “To avoid a break in the production line of these sorely needed quality-of-life vessels for our Navy personnel, what is the required number of new YRBMs that should be funded in each of the next 5 fiscal years beginning with FY 2026?”
The CBO didn’t have a number. But “ensuring a steady production rate is one of the most effective ways to reduce the unit costs of individual ships or platforms because doing so allows a shipyard to sequence its work in the most efficient way,” the CBO responded.
Other big announcements have come recently from local shipbuilders, including Conrad’s agreement to partner with  Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. In a “collaborative framework to jointly explore opportunities in the rapidly expanding U.S. LNG bunkering market,” the companies said in a joint announcement Dec. 4 from New Orleans.
Later this month, Metal Shark announced that it would make Tocaro Blue’s ProteusCore software part of its high speed maneuverable autonomous vessels.
The biggest news came Dec. 3, when Texas-based Saronic announced a $300 million expansion that could create as many as 1,500 direct jobs at the shipyard it acquired from Gulf Craft in April.
The added employment could reverse a downward trend evident since 2014, when St. Mary shipbuilding peaked with 1,608 employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number fell to 764 by the end of 2024, the last point for which data are available.