More subs on way
The $1.3 trillion spending package passed by Congress gives the Navy the green light to build more attack submarines.
The legislation funds the federal government through Sept. 30, which covers the remainder of this fiscal year. More than half of the $1.3 trillion bill will be spent on the military. Military spending is $66 billion higher than in 2017, and nondefense spending is $52 billion higher than last year.
President Donald Trump said he was considering vetoing the measure in a Twitter post Friday morning, “based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.”
The measure provides funding for five more Na-
vy ships over what Trump requested, and allows the Navy to build up to 13 Virginia-class attack submarines, instead of 10, over a five-year period from 2019 to 2023.
The Navy buys submarines in groups known as blocks, and in recent years there have been 10 Virginia submarines per block. The Navy is in the midst of negotiating the Block V contract, which covers the period from 2019 to 2023. If 13 submarines are built in Block V, production of Virginia submarines would increase from two per year to three per year in the years 2020, 2022 and 2023.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who proposed allowing up to 13 submarines to be built, guessed that ultimately 12 will be built in Block V because the Navy “signaled” in its shipbuilding plan that that’s what the industrial base is capable of building.
“This will help meet urgent national security needs and further expand on the growing impact that submarine construction is having in our state,” Courtney said in a prepared statement after the House voted 256 to 167 to approve the bill.
In addition to Courtney, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both D-Conn., put out statements after the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 65 to 32, highlighting the legislation as a win for Connecticut’s defense sector and other parts of the state’s economy.
Included in the bill is $5.5 million for the Virginia-class attack program, including funding to procure two attack submarines in 2018, and money to buy materials in advance for submarines planned in 2019 and beyond. There is also an additional $225 million to help suppliers with the rampup in submarine construction. Electric Boat builds Virginia-class attack submarines with Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia under a teaming agreement.
The Columbia-class program gets about $1.9 billion in funding, about half of which is research and development money and the other half is for procuring materials needed in advance. The design of the new Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines is more than 50 percent complete, and full-scale production is expected to start in late 2020. The Navy plans to build 12 of these submarines to replace the current fleet of ballistic missile subs, which were built in the 1980s and 1990s. EB is doing the majority of the work as the prime contractor.
There’s also billions in the bill for the state’s aircraft and helicopter programs, and authorization for eight more Sikorsky-made Black Hawk helicopters than what the Trump administration requested. The Connecticut National Guard gets $7 million for construction of a new front gate and entry control point at Bradley Air National Guard Base. The measure also denies funding for a new round of base realignments and closures.
Under the bill, the Navy gets $10 million to expand partnerships with the academic sector. The universities of Connecticut and Rhode Island last year announced a new partnership, the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology, to develop a new generation of highly skilled naval engineers and accelerate research in the field of undersea technology. The schools could apply to get some of the Navy funding.