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Navy budget asks for 4 fewer ships than planned

The Navy plans to purchase seven ships in fiscal 2009 — four fewer than originally intended due to “technical problems” with the Littoral Combat Ship program, Pentagon budget officials announced Monday.

The service plans to spend $14.1 billion of its $149.3 billion topline budget request for fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1, on new vessels.

Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, director of force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff, told reporters in a briefing at the Pentagon that LCS is “an example of a program we weren’t able to get as far as we wanted to” in terms of procurement for fiscal 2009.

Due to “technology that wasn’t ready,” Stanley explained that it would not be “prudent to request six [LCS] ships.” Right now, two LCS sea frames are under construction, one by Lockheed Martin and another by General Dynamics. Both hulls are different designs and both have been plagued by cost growth and design difficulties.

Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, director of the Navy’s budget office, said that the Navy’s way ahead with LCS will be determined by the results of sea trials this summer.

“We will know a lot more this summer,” Bozin said. “How we will proceed has not been determined.”

Funding for a single LCS was provided by Congress in the fiscal 2008 budget, but the admiral said a contract for that ship is not likely until “the end of [fiscal] 2008 or the beginning of [fiscal] 2009.”

It remains unclear if the Navy will purchase both the Lockheed and GD ship design or pursue another option.

“We have two ships in [fiscal] 2009 and how we will go forward with that will depend entirely on what we find out in the sea trials with LCS 1 and LCS 2,” he said.

Bozin added that the Navy is still committed to purchasing 55 LCS ships as part of the current 313-ship fleet size plan; however, he noted that “a lot depends” on how the initial ships perform in tests this year.

Cost issues with LCS are “not totally resolved,” Bozin said. Congress has set a cost cap on the sea frames at $460 million a piece. Nonetheless, the admiral said the Navy remains confident it can meet the requirements.

In the next four budgets, the Navy plans to buy another 16 LCS sea frames, purchasing three each in fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011, four in fiscal 2012 and six in fiscal 2013.

Further, the Navy wants to buy one Virginia-class submarine, one next-generation DDG 1000 destroyer, one Joint High Speed Vessel and two T-AKE auxiliary vessels in fiscal 2009. The Navy plans to ramp up Virginia-class sub procurement to two per year beginning in fiscal 2011, according to current budget plans. The Navy also asked for funds to go toward the completion of the first CVN 21, Gerald Ford-class, aircraft carrier due in fiscal 2012 and advanced procurement for the next carrier.

On the aircraft side, the Navy wants to purchase 22 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, 23 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, 21 MH-60R helicopters and 18 MH-60S helos in fiscal 2009.

The budget request also asks for more than $24 billion for Navy personnel to fund an active-duty end strength of 325,300 — down from 327,649 sailors and officers previously budgeted for this year. The service will continue to trim its end strength until it reaches 322,200 sailors by 2013, which squares with previous projections. This funding is part of an overall Navy and Marine Corps personnel budget request of $41.6 billion.

More than $19 billion for Navy research and development funds were also requested.

Related reading:

DoD calls for 7.5 percent budget increase in ’09