The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is weighing whether to require the Navy to take a second look at buying more Joint High Speed Vessels and to instruct the Government Accountability Office to review the Navy’s evaluation of its requirement for small surface combatants.
The proposals will go before the HASC’s seapower panel on Wednesday, according to language in a markup that could be included in a spending policy bill for fiscal 2015.
The Navy is currently conducting a study to determine the requirements for a small surface combatant in light of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s decision earlier this year to scale back the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program from 52 to 32 ships. The task force set up by the Navy to re-evaluate the requirement is expected to complete its work by the end of July.
After that, Congress wants the GAO to take a close look at how the service conducted that assessment. The language proposed in the markup would have the GAO identify alternate ship designs or modifications to the LCS, including the cost, delivery schedule and requirements and whether it was consistent with acquisition policies.
The controversial LCS program has generated criticism on Capitol Hill, in part because of questions about the survivability of the ship in a high combat environment. Hagel raised the same issues in truncating the program and instructing the Navy to look at alternatives. That could include modifying current LCS designs for the two variants, designing a new ship or building a class based off an existing design.
The markup wants the GAO to complete the proposed study by Apr. 1, 2015.
The Navy three years ago reduced the number of JHSVs it planned to buy to 10. The markup, if approved, would require the Navy to reconsider that reduction and buy eight more. The language would call on the Navy to also complete the study by Apr. 1, 2015 and address “the cost and benefits of buying the eight additional JHSVs that were originally part of the program.”
The first JHSV recently deployed to the European and African areas of operations by U.S. forces and is operated by Military Sealift Command. The JHSVs are designed as in-theater vessels for transporting equipment and troops and operate a high speeds