Reps call for bigger shipbuilding $

WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn), chairman of the House Seapower Committee, came out forcefully on March 18 in favor of the Navy getting a larger slice (over the other services) of the FY 2022 defense budget pie. He adds another powerful voice to pushing for an expanded shipbuilding budget. Speaking at an amphibious warship lobbying group, Courtney said the traditional one-third breakdown between Army, Navy/Marines and Air Force budgets don’t match the reality of the current global competition, which is increasingly focused on the Pacific Theater that depends on the Navy/Marine Corps presence. “The ground force component of our military … right now is just not even close to what’s happening with the heel-to-toe deployments of our Navy and Air Force,” he said. Earlier in the day, he and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) implored the Biden Administration to nominate a Navy secretary. The coming debate budget-battle kicked off in December 2020 when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley predicted there would be “bloodletting” at DoD in 2021 over dividing up the budget dollars in a year where the top-line budget is expected to remain flat. In a memo leaked in February, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks listed the FY-22 shipbuilding plan as the highest priority to tackle in the upcoming budget process, signaling the premium the Biden administration is putting on modernizing the fleet. (Source: USNI News 03/18/21) NOTE: Connecticut is home to submarine builder Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., and the New London Navy submarine base. Wisconsin is home to Fincantieri Marine Group Holdings Inc. Its Marinette Marine shipbuilding facility has produced more than 1,300 vessels. Marinette became part of a team with Lockheed Martin to produce one of the variants (Freedom class) of the Littoral Combat Ship. (Austal USA in Alabama builds the other LCS variant.) In April 2020, DoD announced that Marinette Marine had won the contract to produce the Navy’s new Constellation-class multi-mission of guided-missile frigates. Huntington Ingalls in Mississippi is also a major Navy shipbuilder. HASC Members Pushing for SECNAV Nominee Ahead of Pentagon Budget Fight, Fleet Modernization - USNI News