[USNInews] The Navy wants to buy six battle force ships and decommission 19 ships in the next fiscal year, according to the service’s latest budget request.
Faced with fiscal constraints, the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget prioritizes readiness over modernization,
| …wise, under the circumstances. They can revisit priorities should Donald Trump be reelected, along with majorities in both House and Senate… |
leading to a smaller shipbuilding request and a delay for several new programs and research and development efforts.
The request, released Monday, is seeking 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.
The Department of the Navy is asking for a total of $257.6 billion, with $203.9 billion for the Navy and $53.7 billion for the Marine Corps. The numbers are a .7 percent increase above last year’s request, according to a Navy summary. Last year’s Fiscal Year 2024 submission sought $255.8 billion for the Department of the Navy, broken out with $202.5 billion for the Navy and $53.2 billion for the Marine Corps.
| There’s a cute little table at the link showing planned new ship construction for the next five fiscal years (through FY 2029). |
This year’s request continues the Navy’s plans to divest of older platforms, asking to decommission 10 hulls before the end of their service lives and nine additional ships. For the early retirements, the service wants to decommission two cruisers, the first four Expeditionary Fast Transports, one Whidbey Island-class docking landing ship, one Expeditionary Transfer Dock and two Littoral Combat Ships. Those ships are USS Shiloh (CG-67), USS Lake Erie (CG-70), USNS Spearhead (EPF-1), USNS Choctaw County (EPF-2), USNS Millinocket (EPF-3), USNS Fall River (EPF-4), USS Germantown (LSD-42), USNS John Glenn (ESD-2), USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8).
The Navy performed a “hull-by-hull analysis” of each ship to determine which ones to retire early, Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven told reporters Friday ahead of the budget rollout.
“On [the] Littoral Combat Ship, very consistent with prior year’s message that we look at the requirements for LCS and we find we have hulls excess to the validated requirements,” Raven said. “So the divestments proposed in this year’s budget are very consistent with that analysis.”
Raven justified the LSD retirement by citing the Navy’s plans to keep buying LPD-17 Flight II ships, a line the Navy halted procurement for last year.
| Much, much more at the link, with a great many details of interested to those interested in such things, and dull as dirt to the rest. Enjoy! |
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