A proposed multibillion-dollar spending plan for the submarine industrial base within the Navy’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, combined with a pending supplemental spending package, are expected to improve Virginia-class submarine production to a rate of two vessels per year by FY-28, according to senior Navy officials.
“The Navy expects to achieve Virginia-class submarine construction performance of two per year by FY-28,” Rear Adm. Ben Reynolds, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget and director of the service’s fiscal management division, said today, pointing to a proposed $3.9 billion in FY-25 submarine industrial base investments included in the service’s budget request.
The FY-25 request also looks to provide the submarine industrial base with a total of $11.1 billion across the future years defense program -- an increase of nearly $9 billion over the Navy’s prior-year budget proposed for the FYDP. Additionally, the White House proposed a supplemental spending package including $3.4 billion in additional funding for the submarine industrial base in October, though the package has not yet been passed.
Though the budget looks to clip Virginia submarine procurement to one vessel in FY-25, Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven today said the service will make up for the reduction by boosting submarine procurement in the “out years” beyond FY-29 to enable the United States to fulfill its commitments under the AUKUS security partnership.
Lawmakers have disavowed any reduction in Virginia procurement, but Raven said industry is simply not capable of building two more submarines. He argued the move is a strategic cost-cutting measure, given spending caps contained in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, that will help industry boost production in the long run.
“We removed one Virginia class out of concern for the industrial base’s ability to produce yet one more, while in a captive environment, making headroom for these historic investments in the submarine industrial base,” Raven said.
“We're not simply taking a submarine out. We are also continuing investment in advanced procurement to make sure that the supplier industrial base is fully funded and able to expand to meet future submarine requirements moving forward,” he continued.
Under AUKUS, the U.S. is expected to sell at least three Virginia boats to Australia starting in the early 2030s, meaning production rates must increase further to meet both domestic and international demand. To help meet this added demand, Australia has committed to providing approximately $3 billion for the U.S. industrial base, though the timing and details of this contribution remain unclear.
“Thanks to the Australians and the support of Congress, there are additional investments that we expect to bring us up above that 2.0 delivery cadence to that 2.33 that we would need to produce the submarines to fulfill our AUKUS commitments,” Raven continued. “And we're having regular exchanges with the Australians on the timing and the shape of those investments. So, it's an open dialogue.”
Funding in the FY-25 budget is also intended to improve production of the Columbia-class submarine program -- the Navy’s top acquisition priority and a critical component of the nation’s nuclear triad.
Asked about the potential for schedule slippage within the program -- which is on a tight timeline to deliver lead boat Columbia in FY-27 -- Raven said the Navy is still working to complete a 45-day review of shipbuilding challenges directed by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro in January.
“We’re seeing stress across the industrial base,” Raven said. “I think putting this in the context of the secretary's 45-day review will add additional depth and context to the challenges that we're seeing across the shipbuilding portfolio. And we expect to have that done fairly soon.”