Amid lawmakers’ drafting of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon has requested Congress grant the department permission to secure two of the US Navy’s new Columbia-class subs via an estimated $17.7 billion deal with General Dynamics.
The proposal would “permit the Navy to enter into one block buy contract for up to two Columbia-class submarines (SSBN 826 and SSBN 827), providing industrial base stability, production efficiencies, and cost savings when compared to an annual procurement with options cost estimate,” according to the summary of the Pentagon request, as reported by Defense News on Wednesday.
The sub deal has been in the negotiating stage for quite some time, but the current COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic does present an advantage to the Pentagon, which was only able to get the estimate lowered to $17.7 billion in the tentative deal after guaranteeing General Dynamics a consistent stream of work.
This promise, if honored, would grant the defense contractor - and particularly its investors - added economic security against the economic fallout of the pandemic in the US.
According to the timeline provided in the Congressional Research Service’s “Navy Columbia Class (Ohio Replacement) Ballistic Missile Submarine Program” report, the service intends to procure its first of 12 new nuclear submarines some time in fiscal year 2021, which begins on October 1 of this year. The second sub, however, is not estimated for procurement until fiscal year 2024. The final 10 Columbia-class subs would then be slated for procurement in fiscal years 2026 through 2035 - adding a single sub to the service each year.
Defense News noted that the Navy has around $8.2 billion remaining in payments for the first sub, as the service has already pumped some $6.2 billion into the efforts for advanced procurement.
Time will tell whether the legislative proposal will ultimately progress, but Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee Chair David Perdue (R-GA) is “seriously considering the matter.”
The lawmaker’s spokesperson told Defense News that Perdue “certainly supports and has been working toward better business practices in the Department of Defense. He would seriously consider any proposal that achieves cost savings or increases efficiency.”
The Pentagon’s attempt to cut costs on the nuclear submarines comes amid the Navy’s push to expand its force structure to 355 ships. The effort is being headed by David Norquist, the No. 2 official of the Department of Defense.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has consistently called for such an expansion and raised eyebrows last month after an internal assessment from his office recommended that the service recall two of the 11 aircraft carriers from its fleet and add dozens of lightly manned or unmanned ships to the surface force.
Critics have viewed Esper’s backing of drones and other unmanned vessels as in line with the secretary’s tightening of the Pentagon’s budget.
Forbes defense contributor Craig Hooper slammed Esper’s calls for additional lighter-weight vessels in the force structure, highlighting that lightweight ships are harder to control in rough waters, and “as China and Russia emerge, the Navy can no longer plan on operating in calm seas.”