The Navy’s fund for its next-generation nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines has one major problem: it’s empty.
The Ohio Replacement Program is supposed to bring serviceable submarines online in 2031, but the fund created to make that happen is still penniless.
“We need to have some processes in place in order to make sure you are ready to go and there is money in this fund,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, said Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee’s Navy shipbuilding hearing, Military.com reported.
The National Sea-Based Deterrence Fund was created by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act but will sit in financial limbo until Congress allocates funds. A delay in funding could affect the next generation of the Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear submarine, which is supposed to begin construction by 2021, the newspaper reported.
“We need to work with you all [lawmakers] to put this fund to work. Right now it is a framework without funding in it. What was authorized was to use other funds from shipbuilding to go into the Sea Based Deterrence Fund,” said Navy acquisition executive Sean Stackley, Military.com reported. “Today, we don’t have other funds from shipbuilding to move into that fund — particularly to the magnitude needed for the Ohio Replacement.”
The Navy anticipates that it will need $12.4 billion to bring its lead ship to fruition. It would then work towards having a fleet of 12 submarines that would cost $4.9 billion each, the newspaper reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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