Navy Proposes Big Budget Cuts; Rep. Courtney Says It's DOA

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/02/navy-proposes-big-budget-cuts-rep-congressman-says-its-dead-on-arrival/?_ga=2.4447795.1807447557.1581417384-1385115421.1501579770

Navy Proposes Big Budget Cuts; Rep. Courtney Says It’s DOA

By Paul McLeary
on February 10, 2020 at 1:30 PM

PENTAGON: The Navy unveiled plans today to slash $4 billion from its shipbuilding budget and $3 billion from its topline in 2021, part of an overall reduction of 11 ships it had planned to buy by 2025. What are it chances on Capitol Hill? One influential member of Congress has already called it “dead on arrival.”

Rep. Joe Courtney, chair of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee, said in a statement that: “the President’s shipbuilding budget is not a 355-ship Navy budget. As Chair of the Seapower Subcommittee, I can say with complete certainty that, like so much of the rest of the President’s budget, it is dead on arrival.”
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Overall, the Navy intends to request $207 billion, down from this 2020’s $210 billion. The procurement budget drops from $62.4 billion to $57.2 billion, shipbuilding goes from $24 billion to $19.9 billion, and the aircraft line slips from $19.7 billion to $17.2 billion.

To get there, the service will request eight ships in its 2021 budget, four fewer than was requested in 2020, and retire four Littoral Combat Ships and one dock landing ship, all of which adds up to $422 million in savings. It will also drop one of two Virginia-class nuclear submarines in 2021.

In its budget request, the Navy claims it has “prioritized capable capacity over less capable legacy platforms to pace rapidly changing threat,” from Chinese and Russian military modernization efforts.

But Navy analyst Bryan Clark calls the 2021 request the “reset and rebalance” budget, noting the service has to make some real changes in order to refocus money on new platforms.
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