Trump's $4.8 Trillion Budget Cuts A Virginia-Class Submarine

WASHINGTON DC — Pres. Donald Trump's near $5-trillion-dollar proposed 2021 fiscal year budget eliminates a Virginia-class submarine. In December, the U.S. Navy awarded its largest-ever shipbuilding contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat for construction of nine Virginia-class attack submarines.

The contract for the Block V Virginias, worth $22.2 billion, could grow by another $2 billion if the Navy exercises an option for a 10th boat, it was reported at the time. As was announced then, the contract was for two fewer boats than the 11 proposed by the fleet in this year's budget submission. That was then. Now, with Trump's new budget, there will be eight boats, two of which are not subs.

Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Chairman of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement on the President’s Fiscal Year 2021 shipbuilding budget request:

“The President’s shipbuilding budget is not a 355-ship Navy budget. As Chair of the Seapower Subcommittee, I can say with complete certainty that, like so much of the rest of the President’s budget, it is dead on arrival. This weak, pathetic request for eight ships – of which two are tugboats – is not only fewer ships than 2020, but fewer ships than the Navy told us last year it planned for 2021. At $19.9 billion, this request is nearly 17 percent lower than current funding levels and truthfully proposes just six combatant vessels – the lowest level in a decade. It’s impossible to square this plan with the Administration’s National Defense Strategy and its claim that it supports a 355-ship fleet."

In his budget, Trump writes that he has sought to "sustain security at home and promote American interests abroad" by rebuilding "a strong military, fully equipped and

integrated with our allies and all our instruments of power, enables our Nation to deter war, preserve peace, and, if necessary, defeat aggression against the United States and her people. To that end, my Budget requests $740.5 billion for national defense.

Courtney said that it is "the worst-kept secret in Washington that last-minute maneuvering led to the shipbuilding budget being robbed to pay for other pet projects by the Office of Management and Budget. Growing the fleet – and funding the investments necessary – is either a priority for the Administration or it’s not. Unfortunately, the Defense Department leadership was unable to withstand the pressure to use the shipbuilding account as a piggy bank, even as Navy leaders have been outspoken in their concern about getting the support they need to fund our shipbuilding priorities. That sends a troubling message to those of us who have worked on a bipartisan basis in Congress to grow our fleet."

“Included in the late-breaking reduction in shipbuilding is the elimination of one Virginia class submarine, which is particularly at odds with our national security priorities. Year after year, Congress has heard from Navy leaders, combatant commanders and experts about the growing demand for submarine capabilities as countries like China and Russia step up their undersea activity. They have urgently warned us that we need more submarine construction, not less, in order to mitigate the nearly 20 percent reduction in the fleet we presently face within this decade. That’s why we worked so hard to achieve and sustain the two a year build rate since 2011. Deviating from that plan now makes no sense, and I am confident we will address this incoherent decision in the 2021 defense bill.”

Last week, Chairman Courtney and Ranking Member Rob Wittman wrote to Defense Secretary Mark Esper to re-iterate the strong and bipartisan Congressional expectation that two Virginia class submarines would be included in the 2021 budget request.

Coutney/Wittman Feb. 5 2020... by Ellyn Santiago on Scribd

Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Murphy called the measure shortsighted.

"I am astounded at the short-sightedness of the White House and our civilian leadership in the Pentagon. Just last week, the United States Navy announced that the Atlantic Ocean is once again ‘contested battlespace’ as Russian submarine activity off our coast continues to pick up. Now is not the time to be shrinking our responsibility to the men and women of the U.S. Navy," Murphy said in a media release.

"Connecticut’s skilled workforce and manufacturers rely on funding for these submarines, and as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I’ve fought hard to increase spending and boost our submarine workforce. I stand ready to fight any attempt of this administration to reduce our submarine force to pay for more nuclear weapons."

Courtney offered a glimmer of hope.

He said that given, "... we are at the start of the budget process, and this proposal will receive close and bipartisan scrutiny in the months ahead."

“I am proud of the record that the Seapower Subcommittee has earned for its history of bipartisan cooperation in shipbuilding – and expect that trend to continue as we make sense of the budget we received today.”

Read the whole budget here.