NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN – An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, refuels in flight while transiting the Pacific from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jan. 9, 2017, with its final destination of Iwakuni, Japan.
The U.S. Navy’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget request released Tuesday increases Navy funding from $135 billion to $145 billion, but most of the new money goes into the operations and maintenance accounts.The new Navy procurement request is little changed from the last Obama administration request, with some small reductions overall.The Navy is requesting $19.9 billion to primarily procure eight new-construction ships including one Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS destroyers, two Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN…
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The U.S. Navy’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget request released Tuesday increases Navy funding from $135 billion to $145 billion, but most of the new money goes into the operations and maintenance accounts.
The new Navy procurement request is little changed from the last Obama administration request, with some small reductions overall.
NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN – An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, refuels in flight while transiting the Pacific from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jan. 9, 2017, with its final destination of Iwakuni, Japan.
The Navy is requesting $19.9 billion to primarily procure eight new-construction ships including one Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier, two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class AEGIS destroyers, two Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN 774), one Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), one T-ATS salvage tug, and one T-AO 205 John Lewis-class underway replenishment oiler. These are the same vessels requested by the Obama administration. This is down from $21.2 billion enacted in the FY 2017 budget.
This procurement request matches senior Navy officials’ recent statements that FY 2018 procurement would hold steady, with a look at 2019 for more increases (Defense Daily, May 12).
Beyond ship procurement, the Navy also is reducing aircraft procurement by over $1.5 billion, going from $16.8 billion in enacted FY 2017 procurements and requesting $15.2 billion here. This also means the procured aircraft are decreasing from 124 in the enacted 2017 budget to 91 requested for FY 2018.
The request includes $1.3 billion for 14 F/A-18E/F fighters as well as 24 Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35s (20 Marine Corps F-35Bs and four carrier-capable F-35Cs), five Northrop Grumman [NOC] E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes, seven Boeing [BA] P-8A Poseidons, and two Lockheed Martin KC-130J tankers for the Marine Corps.
The Navy cut five previously planned Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout drones because they have a sufficient inventory on hand, the Navy said.
The Navy notably reduced two F-35Cs from plans because they needed to balance funding while maintaining the initial operational capability plans, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget, Rear Adm. Brian Luther, said at a press briefing today.
The Navy’s rotor request includes first six carrier variants of the Bell [TXT]-Boeing MV-22 Osprey, the CMV-22B. Other aircraft include four Sikorsky [LMT] CH-53Ks helicopters for the Marine Corps, 22 Bell AH-1Z Vipers, three Northrop Grumman MQ-4 Triton Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and four Boeing-Insitu RQ-21A Blackjack UAVs.
The Navy’s $3.4 billion weapons procurement, a small increase over the FY 2017 request, includes some notable increases over FY 2017. The Navy is ordering 54 Harpoon Block II+ Mods, 110 Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Surface to Surface Missile Modules (MCS SSMM), 25 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs), and 90 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) IIs. However, Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) are cut from 120 in FY 2017 to 60 requested in FY 2018.
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