Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
2/2/2015
The Obama Administration is requesting $1.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2016 for the Ohio-Class Replacement program, a project that officials say the Navy plans to fund out of its own account from Fiscal Year 2016 to FY 2020, and that will take about two-thirds of the service’s shipbuilding budget if sequestration continues. The Administration released its FY 2016 budget proposal today, which includes an overall $585 billion defense-related request that exceeds the Budget Control Act-established budget cap for FY 2016 by more than $85 billion.
The Future Years’ Defense Program for the Ohio-Class Replacement, a five-year projection, includes about $5 billion for advanced procurement and $5 billion for research and development, Rear Adm. William Lescher, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget, said during a Navy budget press briefing at the Pentagon today. “The Department’s strong view is when the construction costs start with the first boat in 2021, then particularly when it gets to the point of a boat every year from 26 to 35, that additional top-line relief will be required, and [for] new construction, our [general shipbuilding budget] averages about $15 billion per year, and these boats, once past the lead boat, will be about $10 billion per year,” Lescher said.
While Congress has established a National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund solely dedicated to funding the Ohio-Class Replacement, officials and analysts have recently questioned how the Navy will get the funding. Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow for Defense Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said late last week that the Navy established the fund to draw budget share from the other services. “Really what the Navy’s trying to do is make this a separate account so they can take budget share out of the other services to pay for [the Ohio-class replacement],” Harrison said. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in September said the Ohio-Class Replacement could “gut” the service’s shipbuilding budget. The FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act authorizes the shift of up to $3.5 billion in unobligated balances from fiscal years 2014, 2015 and 2016 into the Sea-Based Deterrence Fund.
Request More than FY 2015 Enacted Level
DoD’s request for the Ohio-Class Replacement is about $200 million more than the amount enacted in FY 2015. The $1.4 billion would fund the R&D of nuclear technologies and ship systems including the propulsion system, combat systems technology and the common missile compartment. During the briefing today, Lescher expressed confidence that the Ohio-Class Replacement would get built, sounding a tone similar to Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, who testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week that the Navy would proceed with the Ohio-Class Replacement as its No. 1 priority, regardless of sequestration. “They are the top programmatic priority of the department; they will get built,” Lescher said. “There’s very much a concern on the impacts on the wider shipbuilding approach absent the relief that we feel is required to do this.” Lescher added that the Navy views the Sea-Based Deterrence Fund as a “great first step” to bringing attention to the funding challenge facing the SSBN(X). “The bottom-line, key issue here is the fund, not the funding,” he said. Mike McCord, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), said during another press briefing today that DoD has decided to maintain the current 14-SSBN posture requirement.
