US Navy ship-building
With its increased budget, the US Navy is going to contract for several new vessels. We are going to commission 3 Littoral Class Combat Ships, three Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, two Virginia class attack submarines, and two John Lewis class fleet oilers and an Expeditionary Sea Base and a fleet tug. Additionally, plans our in the works for a new Ford Class aircraft carrier. And guess what its name will be! The Enterprise. CVN-80.
KTF
Rendering of the third ship in the Ford class of aircraft carriers, Enterprise (CVN-80).The House Appropriations Committee’s defense funding bill for Fiscal Year 2019 would buy a dozen new warships for the Navy, including two Littoral Combat Ships beyond the service’s request, according to the text of the bill that was released on Wednesday.
The $22.7-billion shipbuilding account includes three LCSs, three Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers (DDG-51), two Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN-774), two John Lewis-class fleet oilers, an Expeditionary Sea Base and a fleet tug.
Absent from the bill is money to accelerate the procurement of a Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN-78), which the House Armed Service Committee’s National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019 supported doing. The Navy has proposed buying the planned Enterprise (CVN-80) and the yet-unnamed CVN-81 in a two-carrier contract to achieve some savings, and HASC further supported this by allowing the Navy to bump CVN-81 procurement up to FY 2019 to create additional workforce efficiencies by having the ships centered closer together.
The defense spending bill also sides with the HASC and opposes SASC and the Navy when it comes to LCS. Navy leaders have been split on the need for additional LCS buys to maintain the shipbuilding industrial base ahead of the transition to the next-generation FFG(X) guided-missile frigate. The Navy plans to buy 20 frigates from one of five companies competing for the program – including both current LCS builders.