Senators ask Mattis for more LCS funding

A group of Senate lawmakers is asking Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to support increased Littoral Combat Ship funding.

Eight senators signed an April 28 letter requesting funding for the construction of three LCSs in the fiscal year 2018 budget. The Navy's FY-17 budget request shows just one LCS planned for FY-18.

The letter is signed by Sens. Luther Strange (R-AL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The Freedom version of the LCS is built in Marinette, WI, while the Independence variant is built in Mobile, AL.

The Pentagon is scheduled to forward the FY-18 budget request, the first put together under the Trump administration, to the White House's Office of Management and Budget on Monday.

The "opportunity exists in the LCS program now to ensure industrial base stability at two shipyards and also among the 1,200 suppliers in 45 states and the greater than 21,000 men and women who support this important work," the letter states.

"At the same time, we are concerned that a funding level lower than this will risk interruptions to the highly trained workforce currently employed, that would take time and funding to reconstitute," the document adds. "We are also concerned that such disruption could needlessly add costs and time as the Navy builds towards the president's stated goal of achieving a 350 ship Navy."

Wisconson Gov. Scott Walker (R) also recently requested the administration fund three LCSs in the FY-18 budget in a March 21 letter to President Trump.