A Senate Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill includes $1 billion to complete the purchase of two Virginia-class attack submarines that were appropriated in FY 2024, according to the legislation.
Included in the bill is a $3.69 billion line item for cost-to-complete money for previously appropriated ships, including $700 million for Constellation-class frigates 62 through 67, $60 million for the Navajo-class salvage ships and $1 billion for the two Block V Virginia-class attack boats outfitted with the Virginia Payload Module, according to the bill’s report language. The FY 2024 spending bill appropriated $7.13 billion for the pair, according to the passed legislation.
However, the Navy and shipbuilder General Dynamics Electric Boat still haven’t agreed to terms and have not signed a contract for the boats. The contracts will be the first for new Virginia boats since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since early 2020, consumer inflation has risen 20 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those inflation costs for material and workers have contributed to the cost increases, USNI News understands.
One of the two attack boats, both fitted with the Virginia Payload Module, will be heavily modified for special operations missions and seabed warfare, according to the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget documents. The estimated $5.2 billion boat will likely succeed the modified Seawolf-class submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), according to the Congressional Research Service.
Advanced procurement for the two boats was held up for a year over an indemnification disagreement between Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and General Dynamics over the risk of a catastrophic disaster from a Tomahawk missile accident.
A General Dynamics spokesperson referred USNI News to the Navy when asked for comment. A Naval Sea Systems Command spokesperson told USNI News it was “premature to comment on any potential contracting actions.”
Overall, the bill funds a $37 billion shipbuilding budget for seven battle force ships – one more than the Pentagon request.
Those ships include one Virginia-class submarine and three Flight III Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers. The bill calls for one Constellation-class frigate, one LPD amphibious warship and one medium landing ship. It would also spend $695 million on advanced procurement for LPD Flight IIs and LHA amphibs as part of the Navy multi-ship buy. The bill does provide $357 million for parts for a second Virginia-class boat as a measure of support for the submarine supplier base and $100 million to ramp up the frigate industrial base.
On weapons, a release on the bill said the combined bill appropriated $1 billion more than the Navy request for “critical missile programs.” It also added $472 million to the request for SM-3 Block 1B missiles. To expand ammunition stockpiles and modernize production facilities, the committee added $1.2 billion. Related to that, the release noted that the bill includes $600 million appropriated over the request to buy raw materials “key to weapons manufacturing.”
On three key modernization programs, the Senate panel added $252 million to the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear, $95.7 to two Conventional Prompt Strike Missiles and $500 million for the Next Generation Fighter – all above the White House’s budget submission.
The bill also adds $500 million to the Defense Production Act’s investment program in the industrial base for microelectronics, critical chemicals and hypersonics.
Looking in detail at readiness in the Indo-Pacific, the Senate bill calls for $1.9 billion over the request to “counter the influence of the Chinese government” while investing in artificial intelligence and hypersonic technologies.
To cover U.S. Central Command’s combat spending and improve force protection, the Senate would spend an additional $800 million more than the president’s budget called for.
On personnel issues, the bill fully funds the 4.5 percent pay raise for service members. For junior enlisted personnel in the E1-E3 ranks, it provides funding to support a larger—5.5 percent—pay hike. The Senate Armed Services Committee also called for the higher junior enlisted boost.
The appropriators’ legislation fully funds the basic allowance for subsistence, basic allowance for housing, and includes $251 million, equal to the budget request, for basic needs allowance for members of the military and their families with a household income that is less than 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines.
The bill also would spend $466 million to cover the Marine Corps Barracks 2030 initiative. It also would allot $1.3 billion more than the department asked for for installation modernizations, about half of that would be spent in Guam.
The legislation’s conference also included language that would require the Navy to provide the appropriations committees updates once per year quarter on the ships that were included in Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro’s 45-day shipbuilding review that was completed earlier this year.
The report would include “a ship delivery schedule by hull; required workforce by trade and fiscal year, including associated required recruitment and retention data by quarter; Navy and local industrial base investments delineated by fiscal year; an assessment of any at-risk shipbuilding supplier; and design maturity curves,” reads the bill report.
