{"id":60825,"date":"2020-06-25T19:22:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T19:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/25\/congress-aims-to-strip-funding-for-the-us-navys-next-generation-large-surface-combatant\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:31:17","slug":"congress-aims-to-strip-funding-for-the-us-navys-next-generation-large-surface-combatant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2020\/06\/25\/congress-aims-to-strip-funding-for-the-us-navys-next-generation-large-surface-combatant\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress aims to strip funding for the US Navy\u2019s next-gen large surface combatant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Navy\u2019s interminable quest to design and field a next-generation large surface combatant<\/a> is going back to the drawing board once again, a victim of the Pentagon\u2019s disorganization around this year\u2019s long-range shipbuilding plan, according to documents and a source familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate Armed Services Committee stripped $60.4 million dollars from the Navy\u2019s proposed fiscal 2021 budget intended to be used for preliminary design work for the future large surface combatant, according to documents released by the committee. Instead, the money is being funneled into a land-based testing facility in Philadelphia that will work on the future combatant\u2019s power system, which is the raison d’\u00eatre for the envisioned class, a source familiar with the deliberations told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money for the large surface combatant design is one of the victims of the Pentagon\u2019s inability to produce a 30-year shipbuilding plan<\/a>, an annual requirement that is intended to give Congress an idea of where the Navy wants to steer its fleet, the source said, adding that the large surface combatant was not in the five-year future years defense program which is submitted with the president\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 30-year shipbuilding plan has been held up this year by the Office of the Secretary of Defense<\/a> as the Pentagon struggles to come up with a fleet that more closely integrates the Navy and Marine Corps for the Pacific theater and incorporates a significant fleet of unmanned surface and subsurface systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the latest setback in the effort to field next-generation surface combatants, which has seen more than 20 years of false starts and setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy initially intended to field a fleet of 21st century cruisers and destroyers to replace the current Arleigh Burk-class DDGs<\/a> and Ticonderoga-class cruisers. But the DDG-1000 program was truncated to just three hulls, and the so-called CG(X) cruiser was cancelled in 2010 at the beginning of the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the long lead times for new ship development, as much as a decade or more, the situation is becoming increasingly urgent for the U.S. Navy. Many of the cruisers have reached their effective service lives <\/a>and the oldest Arleigh Burke-class ships are closing on 30 years of age, but the Navy is not currently planning a class-wide service-life extension program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its next-generation large surface combatant, the Navy is looking to field a ship that uses the latest AEGIS combat system destined for its Flight III DDG, but with a hull and power system that has ample margin for integrating future systems such as lasers and rail guns, and with missile magazines able to haul larger hypersonic strike missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\t