Rich Abott
Defense Daily
The chair of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) seapower panel on Thursday said the FY ’18 shipbuilding authorization of $26.2 billion should be maintained before adding $3 billion when the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) starts production.
“I think even the Navy hasn’t been as direct as they need to be with the 30-year shipbuilding plan” because it provides spots the Congress can fill in additional ships the industrial base can sustain, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said at a Hudson Institute event.
The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan, released alongside its FY ’19 budget request, featured a chart that listed all expected acquisitions for maintaining and growing the fleet but included several spots as “available shipyard capacity for additional aggressive growth” (Defense Daily, Feb. 14).
Wittman said adding the extra ships “is sometimes easier said than done” and that the Navy should be clearer on what it actually needs.
“It has to be a situation where the Navy says that is what we need, this is when we’ll need them, these are the types of ships we need at these particular points.”
Wittman acknowledged a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that found increasing the Navy’s size to 355 ships within 20 years would cost $26.7 billion per year for new shipbuilding alone (Defense Daily, March 19).
“The Congressional Budget Office does point out the obligation that Congress has to make in order for us to get there. I think where we were last year with the authorization at $26.2 billion is where we need to be at a sustained level in order to get to 355 ships.”
However, once the Columbia-class Ohio-class replacement ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) moves to full scale production “then we’re going to have to hike up that number from $26.2 billion to probably at least, at least $3 billion more than that,” Wittman said.
He noted that is doable when on the proper timeline and scale to make sure the Navy does advanced procurement (AP) and economics order quantity (EOQ) “to make sure that it’s a sustainment ramp to get there.”
