Defense News website reported some highlights from the new defense budget that just passed Congress (1). Here’s a few of the noteworthy items.
- Funding was provided to continue the refueling of the carrier Washington. This is the truly baffling item in the budget. The Navy currently only has 9 airwings. If the
- Ship operations and maintenance (O&M) took a $1.7 billion cut from the Navy’s $39.3 billion request. The fleet is suffering from over a decade of neglect and poor maintenance and yet the O&M is cut? That’s astounding. That’s also poor leadership and management by the Navy. They should have told Congress that O&M was their number one priority over any new purchases. Instead, as they’ve always done, they’ve sacrificed everything to ensure new construction.
- The MQ-4C Triton broad area maritime surveillance program was cut by $41M.
- Three unrequested MQ-8C FireScout unmanned helicopters were added.
- Congress largely shot down the Navy’s request to inactivate 11 cruisers and three amphibious ships. No more than two cruisers per year will be allowed to undergo the Navy’s “modernization” program. As you know, this was the Navy’s attempt to informally retire ships.
As far as the CVWs, how many carriers are currently in overhaul?
ReplyDeleteA major item not mentioned is 15 new EA-18s, a big win for Boeing because it keeps the SH/Growler line open until 2017. If more are added in the FY16 budget, it stays open longer and gives the Navy options wrt the JSF. The Congress also added two F-35Cs, something that was not requested in the PB or the Navy's unfunded priorities list. Note that 22 Growlers were in that list. To be far, the two F-35Cs added were originally planned, but were cut from the PB to meet sequestration limits. I think that they were added back as a bone to LM to soften the blow from Boeing's Growler order, their exemplary performance in recent sea trials, and probably most important - advanced procurement from previous years already had parts in production.