How would the Navy manage to build the Ohio-class Replacement in concert with the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) in the Virginia-class attack submarine in the 2020s? Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, said yesterday during a hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower & Projection Forces that the Navy is undertaking a study to answer that question, to develop a plan to keep shipyards for both projects on schedule, and to determine whether VPM procurement can be accelerated. The Navy is expected to complete the review in the “March-April timeframe,” when Stackley said he could provide more specifics to the subcommittee. Subcommittee Chair Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) urged Stackley to brief congress members more quickly. “We don’t have a couple months, so if you can narrow that scope down, it would be very, very helpful to us as we’re looking to try to just accelerate a little bit of that,” Forbes said. “If it’s not doable, it’s not doable.” Congress is working to gather input from senior Defense Department officials on the Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal as the threat of sequestration looms and as another round of intense and tight Congressional budget negotiations is expected.
Responding to Forbes, Stackley added that he didn’t expect any changes in near-term work on the submarines, and said the Navy is looking at possible work adjustments in the back end of the Future Years’ Defense Program (FYDP). For the Ohio Replacement, the Navy has programmed $5 billion in research and development funding over the FYDP and another $5 billion in advanced procurement. The VPM will increase the number of Virginia Payload Tubes (VPTs) from two to six, each capable of carrying up to seven Tomahawk missiles. The VPM will be installed in the middle of the Virginia-class attack submarines’ bodies, extending the subs’ length. The Navy plans to start VPM construction in 2019 and Ohio Replacement procurement in 2021. The Navy is also ramping up toward delivering two Virginias a year.
“Ohio’s about twice of Virginia in terms of workload,” Stackley told a gaggle of reporters after the hearing. “So it’s a significant amount of workload that’s moving towards that industrial base, both design and production. And so what we need to do is ensure that—one—what works well today continues to work well throughout it all—two—that the Ohio Replacement Program, which is our top priority, holds place in terms of schedule—whether it’s the design schedule, to the production schedule, and ultimately to the delivery and patrol schedule.”
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