Navy Unveils $3.2B Unfunded List: 2 F-35s, New Laser & More Precision Strike

Navy Unveils $3.2B Unfunded List: 2 F-35s, New Laser & More Precision Strike

By Paul McLeary
on March 25, 2019 at 4:57 PM

PENTAGON: Just 11 days after sending its fiscal 2020 budget to Congress, the Navy is back with a new $3.2 billion request for more F-35s, more offensive punch, new tech, and more money to bolster submarine and surface ship depot maintenance.

The annual unfunded requirements list is an annual rite come springtime in Washington, when the service chiefs nudge Congress about all the great things they could do — if they were given a few billion more to work with. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson sent his up to Capitol Hill on Friday, in hopes of adding to the $205 billion budget request the Navy submitted earlier this month.

Like the larger budget, the supplemental ask paints a picture of a service desperately trying to move quickly to get more hulls in the water while adding long-range offensive punch, but struggling mightily to upgrade and repair existing ships.


F-35s and LASERS

The list asks for $240 million to procure two more F-35Cs, as well as $393 million to purchase two more P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes.

Significantly, there’s also a line for $80 million to buy an additional HELIOS shipboard laser system. If granted, this would be in addition to the HELIOS the service is already planning to install on a ship later this year, and is a clear signal that the Navy wants to push the program forward more quickly than had previously been signaled, even if the admirals failed to squeeze it into their official request.
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One of the biggest items in the unfunded list is $814 million to cover ship depot maintenance, which Richardson, in his letter to Congress, said suffers from “financial shortfalls associated with work scope and pricing growth.”

Keeping the industrial base hot has emerged as a major theme across the Pentagon, after years in which small suppliers have been squeezed out of the defense game by boom/bust cycles of procurement and shrinking margins. There is also increasing worry over parts and electronics made in places like China, which could be compromised or cut off in the event of conflict.

This extra $814 million appears to be part of a wider Navy project to boost the capabilities of shipyards in time for a big uptick in shipbuilding and getting ships out of drydock more quickly.
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