Navy unfunded list seeks maintenance, parts - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Navy unfunded list seeks maintenance, parts

Ship and aircraft maintenance and aviation spare parts are the only priority items for which the Navy didn’t ask Congress for money this year, according to a list of the service’s “unfunded programs” released Monday.

The Navy’s list of unfunded priorities this year came to $532 million: $423 million for aviation spares, $35 million for ship depot maintenance and $74 million for aviation depot maintenance, according to a Navy submission to Congress released by the office of Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

“Although these unfunded requirements are not of a higher priority than anything contained in the Navy’s fiscal 2011 budget submissions, these accounts are stressed by increased operational tempo, especially in support of efforts in Afghanistan,” wrote Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead in a letter accompanying the submission.

The projects covered in the Navy’s unfunded lists would enable nine ships to get depot maintenance that has been deferred because of the fleet’s high tempo. The list also would fund deferred maintenance for 21 aircraft and 342 engines. The funding for spares addresses a 40 percent increase in the need for extra parts caused by high use of EA-18G Growlers, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeye early warning planes and Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Congress each year asks the military services for a list of items they consider important, but for which they didn’t formally request funding in their regular spending plans. During the Bush administration, the Navy’s unfunded requirements lists became multibillion-dollar wish lists for varieties of ships, aircraft and programs. The fiscal 2009 unfunded list ran to $4.6 billion and covered 20 programs, even requesting an amphibious transport dock and two dry cargo and ammunition ships.

Last year, however, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned service chiefs that he wanted approval power over the lists they sent to Congress, the Navy drastically dialed back its unfunded list. Fiscal 2010’s list asked only for full funding for ship and aviation depot maintenance. The fiscal 2011 lists, unveiled Monday, continued the trend of what Pentagon planners call “appetite suppression.”