Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
11/7/2014
The Navy’s most senior officer this week expressed concern that sequestration could prompt slashes in construction personnel for nuclear forces, and could result in a long struggle to reprogram funding for projects like the Ohio replacement. Speaking Nov. 4 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, said the prospect of a sequester-induced 10 percent cut to defense spending could result in officials straining to fund the next generation of SSBNs. “[The sequester] is a bad situation for two reasons: You haven’t planned for any of it because you haven’t been told to, and then you suddenly have all of your programs reduced by 10 percent,” Greenert said. “So you scramble for months to reprogram money to get the important monies where they need to be, like the Ohio replacement.”
Greenert said sequester could cause a loss of months of work and hiring, and could affect the most important element of ship construction timelines: people. “You only have so many builders,” Greenert said. “[If] you lose your mid-grade vendors, if you will, people who build specialized valves, circuits, and other specialized items, especially in the nuclear arena, that would be a tough call and that would be a very tough recovery.”
Greenert expressed concern that sequester could quickly halt the smooth and predictable funding dispersed under a Budget Control Act. “You go to the Budget Control Act in a very predictable manner, so you sort of know what your budget is, and you make those plans, and then you can go about it where there’s just no decision every year,” Greenert said. “[If] you get to the beginning of that year, and then you get sequestered, we have this algorithm which kicks in and that’s Fiscal Year ‘13 all over again.”
Funding Remains Unclear
Future funding streams for the Ohio-class replacement remain unclear. The Senate and House Armed Services committees have written a National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund into their versions of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, but the threat of sequestration and prospect of an extension of the current continuing resolution loom. The Senate bill authorizes $100 million for the fund. In a Nov. 6 email to NS&D Monitor, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) spokesperson Colleen O’Rourke said while the Ohio-class replacement is backed by national support and has not been affected by the current Continuing Resolution, it could encounter obstacles in the near future. “If the CR extends beyond mid-December, the program will have to evaluate any program impacts,” she said.
NS&D Monitor last week reported that NAVSEA on Oct. 29 awarded an $83.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification to Electric Boat to manufacture 17 missile tubes to carry Trident 2’s in the Ohio-class replacement. Electric Boat will derive 30 percent of contract funds from the U.S. Navy, and 70 percent from the U.K., under the foreign military sales program. Work is expected to be completed by July 2017. Foreign military sales and fiscal 2015 research, development, test and evaluation funds totaling $60.1 million were obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of FY 2015. At the end of 2015, the Navy is expected to issue an RFP for the ship construction and design contract.
