Congress Hopes to Pay for Nuclear-Armed Sub

By Kris Osborn

Members of Congress discussed the details of the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, a special effort established in 2015, at a recent hearing on the topic. The fund was established as a way to allocate specific acquisition dollars to pay for the new submarines. In total, the Navy hopes to buy 12 of the new submarines to serve into 2085 and beyond. 

The issue and challenges of the new fund were discussed at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va.

Production for the lead ship in a planned fleet of 12 Ohio Replacement submarines is expected to cost $12.4 billion — $4.8 billion in non-recurring engineering or development costs and $7.6 billion in ship construction, Navy officials have said. 

The Navy hopes to build Ohio Replacement submarine numbers two through 12 for $4.9 billion each in 2010 dollars.

A key concern for lawmakers and Navy officials is to find a path forward for the new submarines without depleting the services’ annual shipbuilding fund needed to build vital assets such as aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibs and other submarines. 

“If the Congress funded the purchase of the Ohio Replacement submarines through the National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund, which was established in the fiscal  year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, the Navy could potentially save several hundred million dollars per submarine by purchasing components and materials for several submarines at the same time,” Eric Labs, Congressional Budget Office, told lawmakers. 

“If the Navy is still constrained with the historical level of shipbuilding, $16 billion a year, and they must pay for the Ohio Replacement out of that…the result would be buying 192 ships over a 30 year period instead of 264, and that would lead to a 237 ship Navy by 2045 instead of the 305 ships the Navy envisions,” Labs added.