Markup OKs most requests for Navy, Marine Corps - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Markup OKs most requests for Navy, Marine Corps

About $65 billion for U.S. Navy and Marine Corps procurement and research-and-development programs was approved late May 20 by the House Armed Services Committee — nearly 9 percent of the total $726 billion markup for the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill. The committee, with few exceptions, voted to support the Obama administration’s budget requests. Highlights of the markup include:

• $5.1 billion to fund two SSN 774 Virginia-class submarines — the first time the committee has authorized two ships in one year — and $1.7 billion for advance procurement of two additional vessels in 2012.

• $949.9 million for the first increment of funding for the amphibious assault vessel LHA 7.

• $3 billion to fully fund two DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and support the restart of construction of the class.

• $1.5 billion to fully fund two Littoral Combat Ships and related efforts in LCS research and development and mission module procurement;

• $180.7 million to fund one Joint High Speed Vessel;

• $380 million to fully fund the remaining construction costs for the first Maritime Landing Platform Vessel.

• $3.3 billion for 30 F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet strike fighters and 12 EA-18G Growler expeditionary electronic warfare aircraft. The committee added eight additional Super Hornets to the administration’s request for 22 aircraft;

• $4.1 billion for 20 Navy and Marine Corps F-35 B and C Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

• $4.6 billion for 100 Navy and Marine Corps rotorcraft.

The committee recognized the need for the Navy to temporarily keep its personnel end-strength at a higher level, although, combined with a temporary increase in Air Force end strength, the committee “remains concerned that these increases may be insufficient to meet the increased operational tempo and increasing support requirements being generated by more than eight years of war.”

About 330,000 active-duty personnel are on duty with the Navy today, but the service plans to eventually shrink to a level of about 323,000.

In a nod to the Seapower subcommittee’s three Virginia members, the committee rejected the administration’s $550 million military construction request to plan and design a nuclear aircraft carrier homeport at Mayport, Fla., where one of the carriers now based at Norfolk, Va., would be moved. The Pentagon already has approved the move to Mayport, and further debate is expected on the House floor and in the Senate.

The committee moved to simplify multiyear funding for large ships and gave permission to fund carriers and amphibious ships over 17,000 tons without seeking budget authority in each year’s budget. If approved by Congress, the provision would restrict the number of annual budgets in which a large ship can be funded to three-quarters of the time it takes to build — for example, if a ship takes four years from budget authorization to delivery, it could be funded across three of those budgets.

The 17,000-ton limit, one Hill source said, was created with an eye to the future LSD(X) amphibious dock ship replacement, expected be larger than that mark.

Concerned about a lack of rigorous analysis on the best approach to build a replacement for the Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, the committee withheld half of all money appropriated for the replacement project pending a report by the secretary of defense outlining alternate platforms and weapon systems.

A total of 214 new aircraft are authorized by the committee, part of a $19.5 billion authorization for Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs that includes an additional $547 million in unfunded requirements. But the committee expressed its concern about an “unacceptable” shortfall of at least 250 tactical aircraft by 2017, agreeing in the markup that “the committee will not support future budget requests that fail to address the factual realities of a naval strike fighter shortfall.”

The markup supported continued procurement of F/A-18 E and F Super Hornets “barring a complete reversal of the development and performance failures in the Joint Strike Fighter program.” The committee continued its support of the second-source engine for the JSF, putting it squarely at odds with the Pentagon and the administration, who prefer sticking with only the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine.

The committee also changed its requirement for the Navy to annually submit a 30-year shipbuilding plan. Instead, the plan now will be keyed to the Quadrennial Defense Review “to better align the Navy’s plans with the QDR.” While apparently approving increases in shipbuilding plans during the intervening years, the bill prohibits changes “that would decrease planned ship procurement without an addendum to the QDR.”

The move, said a Hill source, is meant to “prevent the Navy from removing ships from the shipbuilding plan just based on budget constraints,” and to get more substance into the review. “The QDR is supposed to be a force structure construct,” the Hill source said.

The committee also supported the move by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., and chairman of the Seapower subcommittee, to force the Navy to commission three ships for every two it decommissions, a measure intended to avoid shrinking today’s 286-ship fleet and instead reach the goal of 313 ships. Submarines are exempt from the provision because of the stresses of submerged operations.

The committee fully authorized the $3.1 billion Marine Corps procurement budget request and added $126 million in unfunded requirements. While continuing to support development efforts for new Marine Corps ground vehicles, including the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), the committee noted continuing concerns “about the EFV design incorporating a flat-bottom hull that may not be as survivable as an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle) against an IED (improvised explosive device) threat.”

An additional $50 million was added to the Pentagon’s request for SM-3 Aegis ballistic missile defense interceptor missiles, bringing the total to $144 million, “to provide greater stability in SM-3 production and reduce the size of the production increase in 2012.”

The committee also added conditions to fully fund host-country missile systems in Europe, including a provision restricting the availability of funds “until any hosting country has signed and ratified the necessary agreements authoring deployment.”

The 2011 defense authorization bill, H.R. 5136, will next be debated by the full House.