House appropriators have approved the Navy’s plan to sideline cruisers for modernization, but have placed limits how many can be removed from service and added other measures to ensure the guided-missile ships don’t wind up decommissioned.

In the fiscal 2015 defense spending bill the House Appropriations Committee is teeing up for a full vote in the lower chamber, the Navy would only be permitted to sideline two cruisers per year starting in fiscal 2016 and no more than six at any given time.

The USS Lake Erie (CG-70) cruiser. Photo: U.S. Navy
The USS Lake Erie (CG-70) cruiser. Photo: U.S. Navy

The bill would require that no ship be out of service longer than four years. It also insists the Navy order the materials needed for modernization in the year prior to the one in which the modernization would begin.

The Navy’s fiscal 2015 budget request proposed taking 11 of the 22

Ticonderoga-class cruisers out of service for long-term modernization starting in 2015. The service said the plan would save money in the short run while allowing the upgrades and returning the ships to service gradually as the other cruisers are retired.

But lawmakers on the committee are worried that the Navy will simply decommission the ships rather than pay to bring them back.

“The committee is concerned that this long term lay-up will lead to decommissioning some or all of these cruisers in the near future,” according to the proposed language in the bill, which adds: “There is likely a more reasonable middle ground between continuing to operate the ships and decommissioning the ships.”

The bill would add $540 million to a ship modernization and sustainment fund through 2021 to upgrade the ships and return them to the fleet.

In the two previous annual budget cycles the Navy tried to retire seven cruisers, moves blocked by Congress both times.

The chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, recently told reporters it would not be a “bad thing” if Congress stopped the Navy’s plan this year as long as lawmakers followed its historical pattern of providing the funds to keep the ships operating. He added the plan was driven by fiscal constraints.

“It’s not a good idea to put into a modernization availability a ship before it really needs to go in and that is not something we wanted to do but felt we were compelled to do,” Greenert said in May. “So if the decision is ‘no, I don’t want you do that, here’s the money, continue to operate those ships,’ that’s not a bad thing.”

“We need ships,” he added.

The oldest of the Ticonderogas have already undergone modernization, meaning the Navy designated the newer ones for inactive status for upgrades to maximize their service lives.