American Shipbuilding Association

On May 22nd, the House of Representatives passed its version (HR 5658) of the FY 2009 National Defense Authorization Act.  The Senate Armed Services Committee has completed work on its bill (S 3001), which has yet to be taken up by the full Senate.  In the FY 2009 budget submitted to Congress in February, the Navy requested $12.4 billion for 7 new ships.  The House bill provides $12.5 billion for the procurement of 6 ships, and the Senate bill authorizes $12.3 billion for 7 ships.  Rather than increasing the Navy’s topline request and adding ships to the budget, the House and Senate bills essentially reallocate money within the Navy’s ship procurement and National Defense Sealift Fund (NDSF) accounts. 

Both the House and Senate bills authorize full funding for the Navy’s request for the CVN-21 aircraft carrier; one Virginia attack class submarine; one joint high speed vessel; and two T-AKE combat logistics force ships.  The Senate added $79 million to the advance procurement request for the Virginia class submarine in order to support acceleration to two submarines per year in FY 2011.  The House added $722 million to the Navy’s budget request for advance procurement to accelerate Virginia class procurement to two submarines per year beginning in FY 2010.  The House Armed Services Committee also added $278 million in advance procurement for the 13th and 14th T-AKEs. 

The Senate bill provides full funding ($2.5 billion) for the DDG-1000 multi-mission destroyer.  The House, however, zeroed the Navy’s request for the DDG-1000 and instead authorized $400 million for the advance procurement of surface combatants, giving the Navy the option to use the money towards a third DDG-1000 or two DDG-51s.  The last three ships of the DDG-51 class were procured in FY 2005.  The Senate added $170 million in advance procurement funding for the 10th LPD-17 amphibious transport dock ship.  The House authorized $1.8 billion to fully fund the 10th LPD-17.  The Senate LPD-17 authorization came at the expense of advance procurement funding for the Maritime Pre-Positioning Force of the Future amphibious assault ship (MPF(F) LHA(R)).  The House took $1.8 billion for LPD-17 from the DDG-1000 program.  Both the House and Senate decreased the budget request for the littoral combat ship ($80 million and $123 million, respectively).

The full Senate is expected to complete work on its bill in June.  The House and Senate plan to begin mark ups of the FY 2009 Defense Appropriations Bill in mid July.