{"id":39652,"date":"2020-03-17T19:03:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/17\/cost-of-upgrading-the-arleigh-burke-destroyers-may-not-be-worth-it-navy-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:02:30","slug":"cost-of-upgrading-the-arleigh-burke-destroyers-may-not-be-worth-it-navy-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2020\/03\/17\/cost-of-upgrading-the-arleigh-burke-destroyers-may-not-be-worth-it-navy-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost of upgrading Arleigh Burke destroyers may not be worth it, says US Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy is backing away from the idea of a classwide service-life extension project<\/a> for the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, but is leaving open the possibility to upgrade some of its workhorse surface combatant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s top acquisition official, James Geurts, told lawmakers March 12 during a hearing with the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s Readiness Subcommittee that the Navy faced some \u201cstark choices\u201d with a projected flat budget that will see steadily declining returns as inflation eats into the military\u2019s buying power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had originally looked at adding service life to destroyers, if you recall in hearings last year and the year before,\u201d Geurts said. \u201cThat was one of the ways we were increasing the naval size. What this shows you is some of the stark choices the Navy is having to make with a relatively flat line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cService life extensions do add to the size of the fleet, but they kind of just push the cliff to the right, and so we have got to be cautious you don\u2019t keep extending forever without building because eventually you will run out of the ability to extend, and so it reflected some hard choices we had to make in long-term planning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t