By Jen DiMascio
The budget for fiscal year 2010 may begin to take on the affordability of the Navy’s plan to buy and sustain 313 ships and the Air Force’s mammoth list of unfunded requirements, the deputy defense secretary said yesterday.
During a Senate Budget Committee hearing, Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) asked whether achieving the Navy’s 313-ship plan and fulfilling the Air Force’s list of $18.75 billion in remaining requirements for fiscal year 2009 were reasonable or overly optimistic.
“These are valid concerns. I will say they’re concerns we face every year in terms of trying to get all the demands fit within the budget. But we will look at that more as we do the ’10 budget and better understand their requirements,” England said.
According to England, the Navy does have a plan to reach its goal of 313 ships.
“The way forward, however, in the out years, does require more money than we presently have programmed. So that is an issue in terms of achieving the 313,” England said.
The Air Force budget, he said, will regain its footing once the service starts buying more of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
“Unfortunately, I mean, a lot of money was spent on a relatively small number of F-22s at a very high cost. And they do not begin to recover until the Joint Strike Fighter comes along, which is a more affordable, what we call fifth-generation airplane,” England said.
In a speech today during an Aviation Week conference at the National Press Club, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, addressed the issue of shipbuilding, saying he will support building 10, rather than eight ships in FY ’09 budget.
He added that he has serious concerns about awarding contracts for programs before designs are completed.
“The Navy is preparing to award a construction contract for the new DDG-1000 destroyer, yet the design is only 55 percent complete. Maybe it makes more sense to skip over the DDG-1000s, where costs have risen to nearly $3.5 billion, and start to build the nuclear-powered cruiser. How can we be sure of the estimates if we don’t have a completed design,” Murtha said.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said the affordability of future programs should not be in question.
“We’ve got the plans, the question is whether future Congresses will finance them,” Stevens said.
England downplayed a Pentagon report pointing to a dramatic increase in the cost of buying weapons systems over the last four years.
Allard had asked how the Pentagon will handle the cost growth in major weapons systems as reported in the Defense Department’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) and how the nation would sustain developmental programs like the Future Combat System, the JSF and the DDG-1000.
The SAR, “seems to be one of the best tools for future budget consequences of present and past decisions,” Allard said. “And there’s been a doubling of acquisition costs in only the last four years, as opposed to previous history. We haven’t seen that dramatic an increase.”
The total cost of the Pentagon’s acquisition programs in September 2001 was $790 billion for 79 programs; in December 2005, the cost was $1.58 trillion for 85 programs.
According to England, the SAR reflects a “straight-line projection” and will not actually be reflected in future budgets.
“We will make modifications as we go. We’re certainly not going to double the cost of those programs,” England said, noting the recent generosity of Congress.
The Pentagon will change requirements or rates of purchasing–some other means to bring down the cost.
England also told the committee to expect details on the war supplemental request in spring and pressed lawmakers to quickly pass the remaining $102 billion requested y the Pentagon in FY ’08.
Without that funding, the Defense Department is not placing as many orders as it would normally, England said. “But I expect that will become a much more significant problem here in a couple of months,” he added.
Accounts for military pay and funding for 300,000 sets of body armor could are among the concerns listed by Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas.