Six senators and 33 House members have signed letters urging key congressional appropriators to pass language allowing the successor to the Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine to enter its next development phase.
Navy officials have said the Ohio Replacement Program (ORP) must begin detailed design work by January to meet a requirement to conduct the first ORP patrol in fiscal year 2031. But the go-ahead for the work is contained in the FY 2017 defense appropriations bill, which is stalled on Capitol Hill. The Senate and House letters, both dated last week, say that if Congress extends the current continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government into calendar 2017, it should include an “anomaly” allowing the program to start detailed design.
“With an uncertain path forward for the fiscal year 2017 appropriations process, we urge you to take action to keep the Navy’s top modernization program on track to maintain delivery schedules and avoid program cost increases,” the Senate letter says.
The Senate letter, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is signed by all six Democratic senators from the shipbuilding states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia. It warns that thousands of Navy and industry employees could be affected if the program is slowed.
“Unless the Congress provides (1) the first year of ORP funding provided through a defense appropriations bill, or (2) an anomaly in a CR, the Navy and contractor team would have to cut up to 2,300 jobs from the engineering, design and support staff across Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia,” the senators wrote. “This would result in the loss of an indispensable knowledge base and critical skills that cannot be rebuilt without incurring considerable cost, schedule delay and technical risk. Therefore, we must do everything we can to ensure ORP remains on schedule.”
