The Trump administration has officially requested that a second littoral combat ship be added to the fiscal 2018 budget request, after officials said they wanted to add the ship the day the White House sent a budget to Congress that requested only one.
Appearing before a House Armed Services subcommittee on May 24, the day after Trump’s budget requested just one LCS, acting acquisition chief Allison Stiller said the administration “recognizes the criticality of our industrial base and supports funding a second LCS in FY18.” A day earlier, she knew few details about her own department’s surprise request for a second ship.
“That was brought to us today, so that’s what I know,” Stiller told USNI News.
On Thursday, the White House submitted its amendment to the request to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., specifically requesting to move $500 million into the Navy shipbuilding account to pay for the second ship. “This amendment is necessary to correctly reflect the policy assumed in the FY 2018 Budget,” the amendment said.
The additional ship doesn’t add to the overall topline request, and accompanying documents show the money coming from three areas:
- $375 million from the “other procurement” account that had been set aside for an aircraft carrier reactor core. The core is “not needed in FY 2018,” the amendment said. It also cuts $40 million meant for dock landing ship modernization, due to “recently identified opportunities to save on contract costs,” and $10 million from the SPQ-9B radar that’s available “due to program underexecution.”
- $100 million from the F/A-18 Infrared Search and Track system “due to the cancellation of the Block I version of the system,” which has “limited capability compared to the more advanced Block II variant.” The document says the Navy will equip the rest of the Hornets with the Block II system.
- $25 million from the Navy energy account “due to a change in program strategy, which maintains energy funding at previous execution levels.”
The amendment officially brings to nine the number of ships the administration is requesting for fiscal 2018, in a week that has already seen debate over the program and whether it should receive more money.
On Wednesday, during the markup of the authorization bill, program supporters on the House Armed Services Committee fought off a proposal to reduce the number of ships from three to two in its version.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., proposed an amendment to move $556 million from the shipbuilding account to pay for munitions instead, citing the ship program’s spotty past performance.
“Having these ships, which according to tests literally cannot survive combat, has a lot more to do with parochial congressional district politics than the needs of our sailors and our troops,” Moulton said.
Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., said the ship is on budget, but the two shipyards will not be able to continue unless the Navy orders three hulls per year.
“The three ships not only maintain a healthy industrial base, because without three ships, the skilled workforce will suffer a 10 to 40 percent layoff resulting in an extended production timeline and yielding cost increase of 10 to 15 percent,” Byrne said.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said the Navy is also eager for more of the ships, despite claims by Democrats that it is unwanted.
Both lawmakers represent states where the two variants are produced. The Freedom class by Lockheed Martin is built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, while the Independence class is built by Austal USA in Alabama.
