As the full House Appropriations Committee will today start marking up its version of the defense spending bill for Fiscal Year 2016, members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee appear to be “confused” about why the Navy “prematurely down-selected” to a “single material system” in 2014, to develop bow domes for the Ohio-class Replacement (OR), according to a draft committee report accompanying the committee’s draft defense spending bill for FY 2016. The Navy’s plan originally called for development of sub domes derived from two different composite material systems, but the service down-selected to one system last year, before either system was fully qualified by the OR design yard, according to the draft report accompanying the May 19-released draft spending bill. The subcommittee said it believed the two-material plan would reduce program risk and ensure competition, “an extremely important factor for a program whose potential cost was described by a former Secretary of Defense as ‘being capable to suck the life from the Navy’s shipbuilding budget,’” the draft report notes.
Submarine sonar domes are located on the hulls of the submersibles, and house electronic equipment for detection, navigation and ranging. Subs’ sonar domes are made of either steel or glass-reinforced plastic, according to GlobalSecurity.org. “The selection was made before either system was fully qualified by the design yard for the Ohio replacement program,” the report states. “The Committee assumes that a cost benefit analysis was conducted and provided a convincing case for the early selection.” The subcommittee calls for the Navy Secretary to provide an analysis backing up the service’s decision. “[T]he Committee directs the Secretary of the Navy to provide the Congressional defense committees the cost benefit analysis that led to the early selection of a single material system for the bow dome not later than 30 days after the enactment of this Act,” the report reads. “If a cost benefit analysis was not conducted, the Committee directs the Secretary of the Navy to conduct a cost benefit analysis and provide the results to the Congressional defense committees not later than January 31, 2016.”
