Shipbuilding plan officially sent to Congress

The Pentagon officially sent its annual five-year shipbuilding plan to Congress that did not change from the draft copy Inside Defense obtained in May.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work wrote in a July 9 letter to each of the congressional defense committees the fiscal year 2017 report differs from the FY-16 report because of language in the FY-16 Defense Authorization Act that requires the Pentagon to breakdown the levels of annual funding by ship class in graphical and tabular form.

"I certify the budget for FY-2017 and the Future-Years Defense Program (FYDP) for FY-2017-2021 provide for the construction of naval vessels at a level that is sufficient for the procurement of naval vessels in the plan but the FYDP does not account for the effects of the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011," he wrote.

The Navy anticipates its force-structure assessment will be completed by the end of FY-16 and will be included in the FY-18 budget request, Work added.

"The Office of the Secretary of Defense continues to work closely with the Navy regarding the sizing assumptions of our fleet," he wrote. "300 ships, achieved in FY-2019, will provide a force capable of responding promptly to crises with forward-deployed, combat credible forces, assuring access in any theater of operations, even in the face of new anti-access/area-denial strategies and technologies; of establishing control over, on, and under the sea wherever and whenever necessary; and of conducting a large-scale naval campaign in one region while denying the objectives of an opportunistic aggressor in a second region."