LCS, F-35 big winners in compromise defense budget

CONGRESS FINALIZES DEFENSE BILL: The Pentagon’s annual funding appears to be on a glide path after Congress finalized a $674.4 billion appropriations bill on Thursday. The legislation is now teed up for final votes in the House and Senate before the end of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. The chance of the military getting stuck with another stopgap continuing resolution is vanishing. “If we continue to set aside the things that divide us and focus on what we can do together, I think we’re going to continue to get across the finish line,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

BIG WINNERS: The compromise bill is a victory for both the Navy littoral combat ship and F-35 joint strike fighter programs. In both cases, House and Senate negotiations went for the high end of proposed purchases. The bill pays for three littoral combat ships despite the Navy’s request for just a single ship and Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer’s insistence that no more were needed. The three-ship buy is not unexpected because Shelby’s state of Alabama is home to the Austal USA shipyard that builds the Independence-variant LCS. Lockheed Martin builds its Freedom variant in Wisconsin.