The Navy requested a relatively modest $1.5 billion in spending in its FY ’19 unfunded priorities list, with no additional aircraft or ships requested.
The annual list sent to Congress in late February with projects not funded under the formal budget request process is much smaller than the $5.3 billion FY ’18 list. That one included six additional P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, 10 more F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, four more F-35Cs, four more CMV-22B Ospreys, five more ship to shore connector craft, and 30 more RAM Block II missiles (Defense Daily, June 2).
In contrast, the biggest item this time is $340 million to accelerate the buying of two Northrop Grumman [NOC] E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft originally planned for FY ’23. This would raise the total FY ’19 request to six E-2Ds. The Navy said this would enable the early transition of two Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (CAEWWS) E-2Cs in Fallon, Nev., “giving them the needed assets to develop and refine E-2D advanced tactics and aligns the force structure with the requirements to support the National Defense Strategy.”
The next big-ticket item is $176 million to accelerate shipyard investment. This provides funding for industrial plant equipment procurement for items more than $250,000 for the Navy’s shipyards. The Navy said with FY ’19 requested funding of $197 million the service is on track to reduce the aging plant inventory to the 15-year industry standard over the next 20 years. This increase “would accelerate the time to get to the Navy’s current goal,” the document said.
The list also requests $121 million to upgrade the existing Naval Base Sand Diego graving dry-dock to accommodate Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 guided missile destroyers.
The Navy requested another $121 million also for 24 C/KC-130T NP2000 propeller systems kits. The service said the C/KC-130T medium lift aircraft fleet (21 of 25 aircraft) has been grounded because of safety concerns with its legacy propeller system. The NP2000 would “address the number one aircraft readiness degrades and provide commonality with existing systems on E-2/C-2 aircraft,” the document said.
The list funds two Aegis items: $61 million to back fit 19 TI-12 (Technology Insertion-12) ships and two Aegis Ashore sites to resolve sustainment issues created by the sale of IBM [IBM] servers to Lenovo and related cyber security risks and $43 million to design, procure and install the TI-26 equipment for the three Aegis land-based test and training sites (LBTTS), the Aegis Training and Readiness Center (ATRC), and the Naval Surface Computing Center (NSCC) to improve training for future operators and maintainers.
On munitions, the FY ’19 list includes $30 million for 10 more Lockheed Martin [LMT] Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs), $45 million for 58 additional Raytheon [RTN] AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles, and $11 million for five more Lockheed Martin [LMT] MK48 Heavyweight Torpedoes (HWT), all to achieve “maximum production capacity in FY19.”
It also includes 48 additional Boeing [BA] Harpoon Block II+ missiles to achieve requirements in FY ’20 in place of FY ’21.
The Navy included over $95 million in cyber boundary defense for various platforms including $27.5 million for the E-2D; $3.4 million for common control system cyber security for the future MQ-25 Stingray unmanned carrier tanker; and $14 million to upgrade the Emory S. Land-class submarine tenders, Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, and Cyclone-class patrol boats to Windows 10 Secure Host baseline.
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. John Richardson said in the letter introducing the list that the additional cyber funding would “accelerate our ability to counter network threats and increase network resiliency” and “accelerate integrating existing sensor capabilities and ship system protection against cyber threats.”