The Senate Armed Services Committee’s (SASC) version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill favors the Navy procuring 10 new ships, including a new amphibious ship and a submarine tender replacement.
The proposed bill is an increase over the Navy’s FY ‘24 request, which seeks $32.8 billion for nine ships including the second
Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), two Block V Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN), two Constellation-class frigates, one John Lewis-class oiler and one next-generation submarine tender replacement (AS(X)) (Defense Daily, March 13).
(Image: Huntington Ingalls Industries)
The Senate panel finished its markup of the bill in closed session on June 23, when it first issued an executive summary. The markup approves all of the Navy’s new ships, but also adds one San Antonio-class PPD-17 Flight II amphibious transport dock ship, LPD-33, at a cost of $1.9 billion.
This is in line with the House Armed Services Committee’s markup that also authorized the same 10 ships, with both adding LPD-33 that the Navy did not request (Defense Daily, June 12).
LPD-33 was at the top of the Marine Corps’ unfunded requirements list (Defense Daily, March 21).
In March, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger explained he added LPD-33 to the list because the Navy is not budgeting any more LPDs while it concludes an LPD cost review ordered by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) (Defense Daily, March 29).
Berger and other top Marine Corps officials have repeatedly said they do not support decommissioning the aging Whidbey Island/Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships (LSDs) earlier than planned without the navy buying new LPD Flight II ships to replace them in order to meet the Congressionally-mandated minimum of 31 amphibious ships.
Jay Stefany, acting assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition, has told the defense committees that since the ideal procurement timeline for LPDs is every two years and LPD-31 is being procured this year, the Navy would not need to order another LPD until 2025, giving time for the OSD review to potentially find cost savings.
The SASC authorization bill, like the House version, approves LPD-33, but both disagree with the House Appropriations Committee’s defense spending bill that does not fund LPD-33 (Defense Daily, June 14).
The SASC bill also funds the full request for the AS(X) submarine tender while the House bill cuts the Navy’s request from $1.73 billion to $248 million. The House version cut the submarine tender to make room for the debt ceiling agreement and because the Navy cannot spend all of those funds in FY ‘24, a senior committee aide told reporters last week.
The SASC bill also would authorize another APL-67 berthing barge, directs the Navy schedule maintenance and repair activities for amphibious ships to ensure that 24 of them are available for worldwide deployment at any time, directs the Navy to develop a plan to have a second shipyard build Constellation-class frigates, and prevent the Navy from retiring three of the older LSDs and one Ticonderoga-class cruiser earlier than their expected service lives.
The Navy’s budget request seeks to retire several Littoral Combat Ships, three cruisers and three LSDs before they reach the end of their expected service lives due to increasing costs for diminishing returns.
In March, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said many of the cruisers and LSDs are aging out of their usefulness but he sees utility in investing resources into three of the five cruisers the Navy wants to retire, to extend their lives to another one to two deployments each (Defense Daily, March 28)
However, Del Toro insisted the USS Cowpens (CG-63) and Vicksburg (CG-69) cruisers and USS Germantown (LSD-42) are not salvageable, regardless of how much money is put into them, but that at least the USS Tortuga (LSD-46) can use complete its maintenance availability and be useful.