The Navy will submit a legislative proposal to Congress that will include nine destroyers in a multiyear contract plus an option ship to "provide flexibility," according to a senior service official.
Jay Stefany, who is performing the duties of Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, confirmed that the Navy’s budget for the next five years funds two destroyers per year after House lawmakers expressed confusion over the service’s plan for procuring destroyers.
The Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan states that the fiscal year 2023 budget submission funds 10 DDG-51 destroyers at a steady rate of two ships per year across the future years defense program and seeks authority for multiyear procurement of up to 10 DDGs from FY-23 to FY-27.
House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Ranking Member Rob Wittman (R-VA) asked Stefany to explain the difference between the Navy’s budget request and the multiyear procurement.
“Why 10 in the budget request and then going to nine under contract? There just seems to be an inconsistency there,” Wittman said during a subcommittee hearing yesterday.
“As things go forward, if there's another COVID event or world events change to allow potentially only nine of those 10 ships to be bought, it provides that flexibility,” Stefany said.
“There is a cost to that. [A] 10-ship multiyear will save us more money than a nine-ship will.”
The cost of only including nine in the multiyear contract isn’t “overly large” and the Navy made that decision to maintain flexibility, according to Stefany.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), a member of the subcommittee, said he understands the Navy’s desire for flexibility but is concerned about the signal it sends to industry.
“The FYDP says 10 DDGs, that's pretty much where the shipyards are right now. Nine would suggest that maybe one of these yards wouldn't even have enough work to maintain the production rate that they have right now, which is kind of a negative signal,” he said yesterday.
“I'm just curious, how did the Pentagon get to this nine plus one proposal as opposed to the one they had last time which was 10 plus five?” Golden asked.
The Navy’s current approach for the next multiyear contract is very similar to the last one, Stefany said.
“We will actually have an additional option this year to go up to potentially 15 ships, just like the last multiyear did if the department decides to fund a third ship in any of the years going forward,” he said. “I think the administration and the department would like to keep that flexibility if things do not go as well as we aspire to. If they do, then the option for a third one in each year is there.”
During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on May 11, Golden asked Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday about his thinking on the nine-plus-one proposal.
The multiyear proposal was a “decision inside the Pentagon, and it's a decision that we're going to live by,” Gilday said.
It still sends a clear signal to industry, he added.
“I think specifically with respect to Bath [Iron Works], when I was up there and I talked about aspirationally getting to 1.5 [destroyers per year], I know that there's a mismatch between what the shipbuilding plan says right now and what I asked them to shoot for,” the CNO said. “I hope over time that we can get to three destroyers a year and actually solidify that in the shipbuilding plan.”
Particularly with Bath Iron Works, Gilday said he doesn’t forget when the shipyard made a significant investment in infrastructure and workforce “to support a Zumwalt program that never panned out.”
“They are looking at us and are questioning whether or not what we say is going to match what we do,” Gilday said. “So, I think we owe it to them. I intend to keep, as the [Navy] secretary also keeps, close tabs on industry so that we can set a demand signal that's both reasonable and that puts us on a path of stable and predictable ship delivery for the Navy.”
Golden said shipyards must see a green light from the Navy and Congress and invest in its future workforce so it can support the next-generation destroyer program -- DDG(X).
“I would just note for the committee -- and we've talked a lot about this and how to develop that industrial base -- getting to one and a half ships per year for the large surface combatants is a five- to seven- or eight-year project,” Golden said. “If you want to get to one and a half in the future, we've got to start that process now.”