Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) this week led a bipartisan group of senators in a letter requesting Senate appropriators fund two Virginia-class attack submarines (SSNs) in the fiscal year 2025 budget.
The letter was addressed to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chair Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The senators argue the Navy’s request for only one SSN “sends a terrible message to the submarine industrial base working vigorously to rebuild in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Efforts like the Submarine Workforce and Industrial Base Initiative demonstrate a commitment to improving production methods and addressing staffing shortfalls, but these must be coupled with a strong commitment to production goals.”
The letter added that reducing the submarine buying cadence from the planned two per year level “will have the unfortunate effect of reducing the demand signal to the submarine industrial base’s 16,000 suppliers, some of whom are sole-source suppliers.”
Blumenthal, representing one of the two states that builds SSNs, was joined by Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee chair Tim Kaine (D-Va.), subcommittee ranking member Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), full committee ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Sen. Tedd Budd (R-N.C.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sen. Robert Casey (D-Penn.), Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.).
This echoes a similar effort on the House side where Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and other lawmakers sent a letter to House Appropriators to the same ends (Defense Daily, May 1).
This week the House released its initial draft of the FY 2025 defense authorization bill that recommended the budget redirect funds from the Constellation-class frigate, now delayed for up to three years, to help fund a second SSN (Defense Daily, May 13).