A six-month stopgap defense spending bill could put the schedule of the second Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine at risk and delay the mid-life overhaul of aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned in a letter to the four Congressional defense committees obtained by USNI News.
The Saturday letter presented the committees with an itemized list of problems that a six-month continuing resolution could cause the Department of Defense. Under a CR, the federal government keeps operating with the same level of funding as the previous year, preventing the government from entering new contracts unless there are specific, negotiated exceptions.
“If passed, a six-month CR would represent the second year in a row, and the seventh time in the past 15 years, where the Department is delayed in moving forward with critical priorities until mid-way through the budget year,” wrote Austin.
“Military recruiting would be damaged, just as we are post-COVID, returning to meeting our goals. We would be forced to forego vital investments in our defense industrial base, including the submarine and shipbuilding bases. We would lose time and money the nation cannot risk on modernization of our nuclear triad, rapid fielding of uncrewed aerial systems through the Replicator initiative, execution of hundreds of military construction projects, and deterrence initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.”
While warnings from senior leaders over CRs are nothing new, the timing of the new bill comes as the Navy is facing dramatic cost increases for its shipbuilding programs, as inflation and the increased cost of labor promises to add billions of dollars to new and existing shipbuilding programs.
“Residual effects of inflationary pressures of the past few years, workforce challenges, plus increased labor and supply costs across the defense enterprise, all drove costs associated with our shipbuilding account up roughly 20 percent over the last couple of years,” the Navy submitted as part of its Fiscal Year 2025 budget materials.
Those cost increases were included in cost-to-complete funding lines across the shipbuilding budget. Specifically, Austin singled out the second Columbia-class boomer Wisconsin (SSBN-827) and follow-on boats that could be at risk under the proposed stop-gap spending bill.
“Columbia-class requires a total of $6.2 billion of [advanced procurement] funding in FY 2025, which exceeds the FY 2024 enacted amount of $3.4 billion by $2.8 billion or 82 percent. The increase in advanced procurement funding includes a $1.55 billion increase in investments in the submarine industrial base to help increase production of Columbia and Virginia-class submarines,” reads the letter.
According to Austin, Wisconsin and the next three follow-on boats could face delays without a fully funded defense spending bill.
The warnings come as first-in-class District of Columbia (SSBN-826) is scheduled to face a year or more of delays due to supplier issues with propulsion components, USNI News previously reported.
A six-month CR would also delay the start of the mid-life overhaul of aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia after the carrier returns from its scheduled deployment, according to the letter to the committees.
Overhaul work for USS John Stennis (CVN-74) has already been extended due to unexpected damage to the carrier’s propulsion system, prompting a revised schedule, Naval Sea Systems Command told USNI News early this year. According to the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request, it would take another $731 million in FY 2025 and 2026 to complete the availability.
The delay “would worsen already challenged delivery schedules for ships under construction requiring cost to complete funding for the first time in FY 2025,” reads the letter to Congress.
That includes additional funding to complete five Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers under construction at HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works that were awarded as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 multi-year ship contract, reads the notification to Congress.
As part of its FY 2025 budget, the Navy requested $1.9 billion in costs to complete funds across all of its shipbuilding programs.
The gap in spending comes as the Navy is starting to contend with the rising inflation and workforce costs in shipbuilding.
For example, last week, in a list of exceptions to the funding rules under the CR, the White House included a $1.95 billion request to Congress to make up the funding gap on top of the $9.4 billion for the two Virginia-class attack submarines that were already appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2024’s defense spending bill, USNI News reported.
The two Block V Virginia-class attack boats are still not under contract and “without the anomaly, DoD would have insufficient funding to sign contracts for the submarines during the period of the CR,” reads the White House notification to Congress.
