The US Navy has requested six battle force ships in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget, making the request one of the lowest numbers ever requested by the service in recent years.
The six ships requested by the US Navy are one Virginia-class attack submarine, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, one Constellation-class frigate, one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock and one Medium Landing Ship.
Just like prior single ship requests for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Virginia-class submarines, the Navy’s request for a single attack submarine is inconsistent with the Navy’s contractual obligations under Multi-Year Procurement agreements.
The Navy’s share of the Department of Defense’s budget request stands at $203.9 billion, and the Marine Corps at $53.7 billion for a total of $257.6 billion.
The Navy’s overall request breaks down into $61.8 billion for military personnel, $87.6 billion for operations and maintenance, $77 billion for procurement, $25 billion for research and development, and $4.5 billion for military construction.
The overall funding for the shipbuilding account stands at $32.4 billion, a decrease of $400 million for last year’s request of $32.8 billion. A more detailed breakdown of the new construction funding shows that the decrease in that line stands at $1.1 billion from last year’s $29.5 billion request.
Surface Vessels
In terms of surface combatants, the budget requests $6.6 billion for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which breaks down into $4.9 billion for the two ships and $1.6 billion for subsequent year full funding for FY23 and FY24 destroyers. Also included is $1.1 billion for a single Constellation-class frigate.
For amphibious ships, the Navy requests $1.8 billion for a single Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. The Flight II San Antonios are scheduled to replace the Navy’s aging Whidbey Island-class and Harpers Ferry-class ships.
The Navy paused amphibious ship buys last year citing a litany of issues. Following a back and forth between the service and Congress, the Navy stated that it planned to resume amphibious ship buys this fiscal year.
The Navy also requested $268 million for the first ship of the long awaited Medium Landing Ship. The Medium Landing Ship, as the name implies, is a new medium-sized landing ship the Navy is procuring in support of the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO).
Undersea Vessels
For the undersea domain, the Navy requested $7.6 billion for the Virginia-class submarine, of which $5.7 billion goes toward a single ship. Budget documents state that the $5.7 billion figure for the single hull also includes $1 billion which goes towards an additional shipset of two year advance procurement funded materials, one year advance procurement funded materials, and one year economic order quantity funded materials.
The request for a single Virginia-class attack submarine is likely to land the Navy in hot waters with lawmakers. However, this isn’t the first time the Navy has intentionally requested less ships than it is obligated to buy, in hopes that lawmakers will restore funding later.
Similar situations have occurred several times now in past fiscal years. This has resulted in the Senate Appropriations Committee adding language to the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that calls for a detailed report from the Government Accountability Office on the Navy’s treatment of multi-year procurement funds.
For the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, the budget requests $9.9 billion for the second year of Incremental full funding for SSBN 827, the second ship of the class. The request also includes $4 billion worth of investments from FY 2025-2028 for expanding and strengthening the submarine industrial base to support the production of the Columbia-class submarines.
