The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested nearly $500 million more in fiscal year 2018 Navy funding for an additional Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), according to a letter submitted to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan last Thursday.
The OMB released a set of amendments to the administration’s FY 2018 budget request that it said “are necessary to correctly reflect the policies assumed” in the budget.
The LCS amendment brings the Navy’s total shipbuilding and conversion procurement request up to $20.4 billion.
OMB said the increase is fully offset by proposed reductions in the Navy’s aircraft procurement, other procurement, and Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts. The second vessel is needed to maintain a rate of shipbuilding “to sustain the industrial base to preserve competition for the Frigate program” as well as to meet operational requirements that exceed the capacity of the current fleet, the office said.
The aircraft procurement account loses $100 million to shift into the LCS by reducing funding for the F/A-18 Infrared Search and Track (IRST) system. OMB said this is available due to the cancellation of the procurement for Block I F/A-18-IRST, which provides a limited capability compared to the advanced Block II variants. The Navy is set to equip the full number of F/A-18s with Block II IRST on the regularly planned schedule.
The Navy also cuts almost $375 million from the Navy’s Other Procurement account by reducing $325 million in aircraft carrier reactor core funding that is not needed in FY 2018. The amendment said this will not impact the overall schedule for making the carrier available for operations. It also reduces $40 million in funding for dock landing ship modernization “that is available due to recently identifies opportunities to save on contract costs.”
The amendment further cuts $10 million un funding for the SPQ-9B radar that it says it available due to program underexecution.
Lastly, the additional LCS funding is also offset by a reduction in $25 million from RDT&E funds that are available due to a “change in program strategy.” The change maintains energy funding at previous execution levels.
The administration originally requested only one LCS in FY 2018 and defended that before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense (SAC-D) hearing. Acting Secretary of the Navy said one LCS in FY 2018 in addition to the three Congress appropriated in the FY 2017 Omnibus spending bill ensured continued production, although admitted the combined four were below optimal production numbers.
Later in the day, Allison Stiller, acting assistant of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition, told the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee that the administration had changed its position to be “supportive” of a second LCS (Defense Daily, May 24).
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), in its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, funded only the one LCS. Committee staffers told reporters at a briefing yesterday that SASC members found the SAC-D testimony justifying one LCS “compelling” and kept its authorization at one LCS.