The president’s 2017 budget request will include funding for LHA-8, the third America-class amphibious assault ship, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller confirmed on Thursday.

USS America (LHA-6) is one of the ships slated to deploy to the Asia-Pacific region over the next few years.
USS America (LHA-6) is one of the ships slated to deploy to the Asia-Pacific region over the next few years.

That ship will help the Navy and Marine Corps stave off a continued shortfall in amphibious ships, he said in a speech on Capitol Hill. The Navy only has 30 amphibs in its fleet, and even though its stated requirement is 38 ships to support deploying two Marine Expeditionary Brigades, it would need about 50 vessels to meet global combatant commander demands.

“We’re asking for a third LHA in 17 to get us back to the 11 big decks that we think meet our requirements,” but by the time the third LHA hits the fleet, its oldest big deck amphib, the USS Wasp (LHD-1), will be 30 years old, he noted. Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] Ingalls Shipbuilding has delivered the first LHA to the Navy, and the second ship, the USS Tripoli (LHA-7), is under construction.

Either Ingalls or General Dynamics [GD] NASSCO will build LHA-8. The Navy issued combined requests for proposals [RFP] to both vendors last year for that ship and the first six TAO-X oilers. To preserve the industrial base, the service will award the shipbuilders either LHA-8 or the oilers, but the company with the lowest combined bid will also receive the bulk of the design work for the LX(R), the Navy’s newest class of amphibious ships.

Neller noted that under the current procurement plan, the Navy will not be able to meet its 38-ship requirement. The service plans to eventually build up a fleet of 34 amphibious ships: 11 LHDs and LHAs, 12 LPDs, and and 11 LX(R)s, which will replace the LSD.

“This number, combined with an appropriate level of availability, is a compromise,” he said. “It doesn’t meet the requirement and there is a certain level of risk. So the bottom line is that the Navy needs more ships.”

The Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition (AWIBC), a shipbuilding advocacy group, is pushing lawmakers to expedite the construction of one of those ship classes, the LX(R). In a Feb. 4 letter to Congress, the organization asked lawmakers to increase funding for the program in fiscal year 2017 so that construction of the first ship can begin in fiscal year 2018 instead of 2020.

Accelerating production of the ship will help the Navy avoid the investment crunch it will face once it begins procuring the Ohio Replacement Submarine, a program that the Government Accountability Office expects will have a price tag of about $96 billion, said AWIBC Chairman Brian Schires, who is also vice president of Navy and Marine government relations at Rolls-Royce North America.

It will also ensure shipbuilders can move from the LPD class to LX(R) program without a break in production, he said.

“If we have to shut down those facilities for a short period of time while we’re waiting for LX(R) to come online, it’s going to drive up cost,” he said. “It’s going to interfere with quality, and it’s going to delay the delivery. So this just makes good sense.”

The Navy plans to base the design of the LX(R) on its existing San Antonio-class LPDs, with adjustments made to drive down the cost of construction. The service has taken that approach in the past, with its Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships that are based on the Whidbey Island-class LSD design, Neller said, but the LPD and LX(R) will have even more commonality.

“This decision is an acquisition success story…because it provides a more capable vessel at a lower cost with increased capacity on a shorter timeline,” he said. “I’m very much in favor of faster and cheaper and smarter.”

The president’s budget request will be unveiled by the Pentagon on Feb. 9.