Despite a surge in requests for ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships, the Navy’s latest budget requests cuts funding that would upgrade nine destroyers with the newest BMD and combat capabilities.
The president’s budget request for 2016 removed funding that had been planned to modernize the Aegis combat system on nine Arleigh Burke destroyers with its new Baseline 9 software, which would boost the ships’ ability to defeat missiles and attack aircraft, Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis programs for Lockheed Martin [LMT], said April 10 during a briefing to reporters.
Photo: Missile Defense Agency
Out of the 84 destroyers and cruisers that make up the Navy’s Aegis fleet, only 33 of those ships can conduct ballistic missile defense, he said. That number could be driven down even further if the service lays up portions of its cruiser fleet for modernization.
While the nine ships still are planned to receive hull, mechanical and electric upgrades, they will have to wait for combat system enhancements. Sheridan hopes funding for those nine destroyers eventually is put back in future budgets, but he is skeptical that all ships will undergo modernization in short order, he said.
“The way I’ve observed the Navy balance its books is always by reducing the number of modernizations,” he said. “Back in the day, you had four or five ships getting modernized in a given year, and that’s not the case anymore. We’re lucky if we get one, maybe two.”
In his list of unfunded priorities submitted to Congress, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said that the Navy is taking “significant chances” in the areas of countering anti-ship cruise missile and air-to-air warfare threats, and seeks money for resources to protect against them. If given additional funding, his second priority would be to restore $60 million in funds to modernize the Aegis system of USS Howard (DDG-83).