or salvage ships and LCAC 100s. The DDGs requested
for 2016 include the first Flight III ship equipped with
the new Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) suite.
RADM William K. Lescher, deputy assistant secre-
tary of the Navy for budget, told reporters at a Feb. 2
briefing at the Pentagon that the Navy “continues to be
over-subscribed by combatant commanders,” but is on
track for a 282-ship battle fleet in 2016, on the way to
304 ships in 2020, since updated to 306.
Ships scheduled for delivery in 2016 include one
CVN, two SSNs, five LCSs, two joint high-speed ves-
sels, one LPD, two Arleigh Burke DDGs and one
Zumwalt-class DDG. Three Los Angeles-class SSNs are
scheduled for decommissioning in 2016.
ADM Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval opera-
tions, told the HAC-D Feb. 25 the balance of combat-
ant ships in the fleet today “is pretty good. [But] if we
go on the path we’re on as we go to BCA numbers,
we’re in a different world.”
The Navy will continue modernization of 11
Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Lescher said, with USS
Vicksburg and USS Chosin scheduled for 2016, follow-
ing USS Gettysburg and USS Cowpens begun this year.
Asked at the Feb. 26 hearing about cruiser modern-
ization by Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., Mabus said
the Navy need ed 11 cruisers at a time in the fleet until
the 2040s, and that the current plan will extend their
lives, but not as long as would have happened under
the 2015 plan of putting 11 of the 22 cruisers in a
reduced status while being mo dernized, and will not
reap as much savings in manpower.
“I think we need to increase that
pace,” Forbes said. “The problem
is we need these cruisers out there
doing what they were designed to
do. We’re going to try to reduce the
time period they have for doing
these availabilities so we can get
them out quicker.”
The Navy has budgeted $1.4 bil-
lion for research and development
for the Ohio Replacement program,
the effort to develop a new ballistic-
missile submarine; $283 million for
the Virginia SSN; $184 million for
the Ford-class aircraft carrier; $
million for AMDR development;
$77 million for Surface Ship Tor -
pedo Defense; and $110 for devel-
opment of the new frigate.
Although the national Sea-Based
Stra tegic Deterrence Fund estab-
lished by Congress has no funds yet
for the Ohio Replacement, Lescher
said the fund “is a great first step.”
Maintaining that industrial base is essential for the
Navy to sustain the ability to put to sea its strategic
nuclear deterrent force, Greenert testified at the Feb.
26 hearing.
“The sea-based strategic deterrent is my No. 1 pro-
gram,” he said. “I would propose no reductions.”
The Ohio Replacement “definitely shouldn’t be inside
the Navy budget,” Forbes said. “I think that [National
Sea-Based Strategic Deterrence Fund] is the best way to
fund it. Clearly, this is a national strategic asset, some-
thing we’re asking to carry almost 70 percent of the
strategic weapons that we’re going to have. It should
come out of the Department of Defense topline, not the
Navy shipbuilding budget. We need to begin funding it.”
“Regardless of how much we can drive the cost down,
or regardless of what we can do to the schedule, if we don’t
either pay for this as a national program, or plus up Navy
shipbuilding to account for it, I can’t stress how harmful
the effects will be on either the fleet or everything else in
the Navy, and that includes attack submarines,” Mabus
said in March 4 testimony to the Senate Appropriations
Committee’s defense subcommittee (SAC-D).
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member of the SAC-
D, said, “I would hope that this committee would look
very favorably on providing funds through that mech-
anism to supplement your shipbuilding fund.”
“We very much appreciate the establishment of that
fund and think that it’s a great first step in that direc-
tion,” Mabus replied, pointing out that earlier classes
of ballistic-missile submarines were funded with “pret-SPECIAL REPORT / THE 2016 BUDGET PROPOSAL
14 S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 5 W W W. S E A P O W E R M A G A Z I N E. O R G
Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class attack submarine USS North Dakota ren-
der a salute during the boat’s commissioning ceremony Oct. 25 in Groton,
Conn. North Dakota is the 11th Virginia-class submarine. The nine proposed
new-construction ships in the Navy’s fiscal 2016 budget request include two
Virginia-class attack submarines.
U.S.^NAVY