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Congress eyes Navy shipbuilding programs

Congressional scrutiny of the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding programs is likely to continue to be sharp, if the new budget season’s first two naval hearings are any indication.

On Wednesday, House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., signaled a possible lack of support for the new Zumwalt class DDG 1000 destroyer program when he asked about the effects of delaying the 2009 ship in favor of more auxiliary cargo ships. Murtha later said he’d like to examine cutting short the planned buy of seven Zumwalts and moving up acquisition of the follow-on CG(X) cruiser, now scheduled to begin in 2011.

As he did last year, Murtha also declared his intention to buy the Navy 10 ships this year rather than the seven the service is asking for. Construction of an additional, tenth, ship of the San Antonio LPD 17 class also is a goal, he said.

Cost growth, Murtha cautioned, remains a serious issue for the service’s 313-ship fleet plan.

That concern was echoed Thursday during the Senate Armed Service Committee’s posture hearing on the Navy Department’s $149.3 billion 2009 budget request. Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., reiterated his apprehensions about “cost problems in the shipbuilding arena, most notably with the Littoral Combat Ship program.”

Since its inception in 2004 as a $220 million ship, the cost of the first LCS ships has jumped to $471 million for the first ship and $440 million for the second. Two follow-on ships were cancelled last year over cost and contract differences and Congress has placed a $460 million cost cap on future ships. The Navy is asking for two LCS ships in the 2009 budget.

Former committee chairman Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked Navy Secretary Donald Winter about the Navy’s ability to reach its 313-ship goal.

“I am hopeful we will be able to reach 313,” Winter said, but added it depended on work and cooperation between the Navy and industry.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed her alarm about Murtha’s interest in possibly delaying or curtailing the DDG 1000 program, and got agreement from the Navy’s top sailor.

“I’m very concerned that we do not disrupt our combatant [construction] lines,” declared Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.

Roughead was lukewarm on the subject of nuclear power for surface warships.

“Nuclear power,” Roughead said in response to a question from Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., “offers advantages but has high cost.” But the CNO didn’t rule out the idea. The Navy, he said, “should look at varying ways to power ships and nuclear will be part of that.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., also picked up the nuclear question and asked Winter about whether the DDG 1000’s tumblehome hull — which the Navy would like to use as the basis for the CG(X) cruiser — could take a nuclear power plant.

“We do believe we can accommodate a nuclear reactor plant in that particular hull form,” Winter acknowledged.

Reed also pressed the Navy secretary on when an analysis of alternatives for the CG(X) design would be made public. Navy sources were confident last year the report would be out by November or at the latest December, but it remains a work in progress.

“The report still has a ways to go,” Winter said. “I would be hard-pressed to give you a date.”

Other programs singled out by Levin for cost growth concerns were the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and the VH-71 presidential helicopter programs, and he decried future shortfalls in attack submarines, aircraft carriers and strike fighter aircraft.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway also revealed during questioning that he will be visiting China in late March. During his visit, he told reporters, he is to visit a new Chinese amphibious ship at sea and return to shore on a Chinese amphibious vehicle.