KITTERY, Maine — The U.S. Navy is reprioritizing its resources now and in the future to pay for the estimated $450 million cost to repair the USS Miami submarine.

KITTERY, Maine — The U.S. Navy is reprioritizing its resources now and in the future to pay for the estimated $450 million cost to repair the USS Miami submarine.



Shipyard workers from Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, Va., will also be coming to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard by year's end to work during the expected 1�-year repair project.



The nuclear-powered submarine was damaged after a fire was allegedly set inside the forward compartment May 23. It took more than 100 firefighters 10 hours to bring the blaze under control. Former shipyard worker Casey Fury has been charged with setting the fire.



The Navy is expected to pay for all but $150 million of the cost of the repairs by shifting money around in its Fiscal Year 2012-13 budgets, said Dale Eng, public affairs officer for Naval Sea Systems Command.



Eng confirmed conversations Navy officials have had this week with members of the Maine and New Hampshire congressional delegations detailing the spending.



It is anticipated that $100 million will come from money already in the ship repair fund of the current year's budget. Another $200 million will be shifted to the Miami repairs from the Fiscal 2013 "ship depot maintenance line" of the Navy's budget. This is funding assigned to the four public shipyards for work for the year. The final $150 million is expected to come from Congress. The Navy requested it in the 2013 defense appropriations bill.



"This is above and beyond the Navy's usual ship repair budget, and has been specifically designated for the USS Miami repairs," said Kevin Kelly, communications director for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.



The Senate Appropriations Committee recently passed an appropriations bill with the Miami money included, but the full Senate has not voted on the measure.



Both Collins and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said they will fight to ensure the funding makes it through Congress.



"The USS Miami represents a significant investment in our national security," Collins said. "It is important that it return to the fleet as quickly as possible."



Shaheen spokesperson Faryl Ury said the senator will "continue to work with the Navy and the relevant congressional committees to ensure that the Navy has the funding needed."



Meanwhile, the shipyard is planning for the work, which is slated to begin by the end of the year and end in April 2015.



Paul O'Connor, president of the Metal Trades Council, said the work will be a hybrid between new construction and repair. Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls build submarines. He said Miami's forward compartment was "damaged beyond repair in many areas" and needs to be replaced as new.



"They're the experts in new construction; we're the experts at repair," O'Connor said. "It's kind of a marriage in the middle."



The work can be accommodated at the shipyard, as the next submarine scheduled to be brought to the dry dock housing the USS Miami won't arrive until the end of 2014, Eng said. Accommodations were made to delay the start of that work for four months.



In addition, shipyard workers will also have access to parts from the recently inactivated USS Memphis, which is now at the shipyard.



"Towing the ship to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (in Washington state) has been postponed so that the Navy can reuse as many components as possible to restore the Miami," Eng said.



Fury, 24, of Portsmouth reportedly confessed to Navy investigators that he set the Miami fire and a second fire two weeks later on the dry dock. He told investigators he wanted to leave work early.



He is being held without bail and, according to court documents, may plead guilty to the charges before he's indicted.



O'Connor said he's thought often of Fury the past few months as the planning for the Miami repair work has taken place.



"I sit through meetings with rooms full of personalities — highly intense ship builders, admirals, civilian professionals — and we talk about the amount of money and work it will take," O'Connor said. "Then I think this is all happening because one guy wanted to go home early. During these high-level meetings, it runs through my mind constantly."