By Geoff Fein
For FY ’10, the Navy has submitted two unfunded requests to Congress, totaling $395 million, for aviation and ship maintenance.
The FY ’10 request is a far cry from last year’s $4.5 billion in unmet needs the Navy sent to lawmakers.
This year’s unfunded programs list reflects an effort to move programs to the baseline and not go back to the Hill with a wish list of items, a source said.
A draft document had earlier shown the Navy’s unfunded programs request at $857 million. However, the service removed $495 million pegged for P-3 red stripe mitigation. According to the draft, the Navy said it needed to procure a “required number of wing repair kits and installs to maintain depot throughput to support [the] P-3 recovery plan.”
At a hearing yesterday before the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Patrick Walsh told lawmakers the Navy was not finding the fatigue and other issues in the P-3 that the service had thought they’d find, and that a recent review of the cost estimate for P-3 wing repairs showed they need less funds than expected.
Navy officials met with Defense Secretary Gates, and then issued a memo deleting the $465 million for P-3s. The Navy will instead pay for P-3 repairs through authorized and appropriated funds, Walsh told lawmakers.
In December 2007, the Navy grounded 39 of its fleet of Lockheed Martin [LMT] P-3C Orion aircraft due to structural fatigue concerns discovered during an ongoing evaluation of the aircraft (Defense Daily, Dec. 18, 2007).
Lockheed Martin and L-3 [LLL] were awarded contracts last September to provide replacement outer wing kits for the Navy’s P-3 Orion aircraft (Defense Daily, Sept. 4).
In FY ’09, the Navy noted it had a $548.3 million unfunded priorities request for critical maritime patrol improvements.
The Navy’s FY ’10 unfunded program list now only contains requests for aviation and ship depot maintenance funding.
The sea service is seeking $200 million for ship depot maintenance. The requested amount would fund 20 surface ship availabilities, according to the Navy. The Navy’s FY ’10 budget request funds 96 percent of its ship maintenance goal. In its unfunded priorities request to Congress, the service noted it had “accepted risk to [its] goal in order to balance across [the] portfolio.”
Last year the Navy had an unfunded priorities request of $120 million for ship maintenance.
Navy officials have repeatedly noted that the overwhelming majority of ships that will make up the 313-ship fleet are in operation today. That has led the Navy to examine ways to keep its fleet in shape, including an effort to understand where ships are in their expected service life. The Surface Ship Life Cycle Management (SSLCM) activity will focus on three areas: a Ship Service Life pilot led by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS); corrosion; and the integrated class management plan (Defense Daily, March 12).
In its FY ’10 budget request, the Navy is seeking $6.5 billion for ship maintenance. According to the service’s budget numbers, the annual deferred maintenance amount for FY ’10 is $186 million.
The Navy additionally requested $195 million in aviation depot maintenance. According to the Navy, the funds would pay for 86 deferred airframes and 314 deferred engines. The Navy’s FY ’10 budget submission funds 87 percent of the Navy’s aviation maintenance goal.
In its FY ’10 budget request, the Navy is seeking approximately $1.2 billion for aircraft depot maintenance.
For FY ’10, Gates told each service chief he wanted to see the unmet needs lists before they were sent to the Hill.
“Should you determine there are FY 2010 unfunded requirements that are responsive to the request from Congress, I expect you to first inform me of such a determination so we can schedule the opportunity for you to brief me on the details,” Gates said in a April 30 memo to the services chiefs and commanders of the combatant commands.