Analysis Of The Navy S Fiscal Year 2012 Shipbuilding Plan

This is an independent analysis of the Navy's latest shipbuilding plan. This study summarizes the ship inventory goals and purchases described in the Navy's FY 2012 plan and assesses their implications for the Navy's funding needs and ship inventories through 2041. The Navy currently envisions buying a total of 275 ships during the next 30 years at an average annual cost of nearly $16 billion (in 2011 dollars) for new construction alone or a little more than $17 billion for total shipbuilding. By comparison, this report estimates that the cost of the Navy¿s plan will average $18 billion per year for new construction or $20 billion per year for total shipbuilding. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

The Dept. of Defense (DoD) generally issues annual reports that describe its plan for building new ships over the next 30 years. DoD submitted its 2014 shipbuilding plan to the Congress in May 2013, covering FY 2014 to 2043. This plan reflects the Navy's most recent goals for battle force ships -- goals that were developed in 2012 and outlined in a report to the Congress in Jan. 2013; that analysis is hereafter referred to as the 2012 force structure assessment. The goals developed in 2012 were slightly different from the ones that were outlined in the 2005 force structure assessment and were reflected in the Navy's shipbuilding plans up through last year. This report examined the 2014 plan in detail and estimated the costs of the proposed ship purchases using its own estimating methods and assumptions. It also analyzed how those ship purchases would affect the Navy's inventories of various types of ships over the next three decades. Tables and figures. This is a print on demand report.

"Since 2006, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has performed an independent analysis of the Navy's latest shipbuilding plan at the request of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces of the House Armed Services Committee. This CBO study, the latest in the series, summarizes the ship inventory goals and purchases described in the Navy's 2012 plan and assesses their implications for the Navy's funding needs and ship inventories through 2041." --Preface.

Statement of Eric J. Labs on the Navy¿s plans for its shipbuilding programs and corresponding budget. Contents: (1) Changes in Ship Requirements Under the 2011 Plan; (2) Ship Purchases and Inventories Under the 2011 Plan: Combat Ships; Logistics and Support Ships; (3) Ship Costs Under the 2011 Plan: The Navy¿s Estimates; CBO¿s Estimates; Changes from the 2009 Plan; (4) Outlook for Individual Ship Programs; Aircraft Carriers; Submarines; Large Surface Combatants; Littoral Combat Ships; Amphibious Ships. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find publication.

The Navy is required by law to submit a report to the Congress each year that projects the service's shipbuilding requirements, procurement plans, inventories, and costs over the coming 30 years. Since 2006, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been performing an independent analysis of the Navy's latest shipbuilding plan at the request of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces of the House Armed Services Committee. This CBO report, the latest in that series, summarizes the ship requirements and purchases described in the Navy's 2011 plan and assesses their implications for the Navy's funding needs and ship inventories through 2040. The new plan appears to increase the required size of the fleet compared with earlier plans, while reducing the number of ships to be purchased, and thus the costs for ship construction, over the next three decades. Despite those reductions, the total costs of carrying out the 2011 plan would be much higher than the funding levels that the Navy has received in recent years.

Congress requires the Navy to issue an annual report that describes its plan for building new ships over the next 30 years. CBO has prepared a report, required under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, analyzing the Navy's latest long-term shipbuilding plan, which covers fiscal years 2013 to 2042. CBO estimates that the cost for new-ship construction under the 2013 plan would average $20.0 billion per year, or a total of $599 billion through 2042. That figure is 19 percent more than the Navy's estimate. Including the expense of refueling aircraft carriers and the other items raises that average cost to about $22 billion per year, 37 percent more than what the Navy has spent through its shipbuilding accounts on average during the past 30 years. The 2013 plan contains some significant changes in the Navy's long-term goals for shipbuilding. Those changes include reducing the goal for the inventory of ships, reducing the number of ships to be purchased, and altering the composition of ships to be purchased (such as buying fewer less-expensive support ships and more high-end combat ships).