Modifications to the latest version of the Navy DDG-51 destroyer, the Flight III. CREDIT: GAO

WASHINGTON: Days after a leading congressman criticized the Navy’s 2022 budget for buying only one Aegis destroyer instead of two, the Navy released an unfunded requirements list with that second destroyer right at the top of the chart. The almost $1.7 billion line item was almost certainly on the draft list before Rep. Joe Courtney’s public critique, but the House seapower chairman’s reaction can only have helped cement its place as the No. 1 thing the Navy would like Congress to add to its budget request. (Since it’s likely to be added to the annual spending bill anyway because of the high congressional interest, it makes it even easier to put it on the list…)

The second item on the list is a modest basket of communications network upgrades, worth $53.9 million, that the Navy says are necessary to its portion of the future meta-network connecting all the armed services across sea, land, air, space, and cyberspace, Joint All-Domain Command & Control (JADC2). No. 3 is similarly an $87 million basket of improvements to Position, Navigation & Timing (PNT) systems for logistics ships, which would help them navigate during a major conflict or crisis when an adversary jams GPS. The next two items, totaling $134 million, cover radar spares and upgrades for the new supercarrier, USS Ford, and the destroyer USS Zumwalt. All these reflect the military’s increasing preparation for a high-tech standoff in which China would target US electronics, seeking to blind sensors, sever network connections and disorient navigation systems.

Other hefty items on the list include improvements to the Navy’s strained maintenance system for aircraft (No. 8, $222 million) and ships (No. 9, $207 million), as well as more flying hours for aircraft training in different categories (No. 10, $280 million and No. 22, $157 million).

Aircraft procurement is a big chunk of the total ask. Indeed, the second biggest item on the list, after the $1.7 billion destroyer, is lucky No. 13: five more F-35C Joint Strike Fighters for $535 million. The Navy budget only asks for 15 F-35Cs, so five aircraft would be a 33% increase in the buy.

Other major aviation items pepper the rest of the 31-item list:

  • No. 14 is $191 million for an additional E-2D Hawkeye radar plane,
  • No. 15 is $367 million to accelerate converting C-130Js into TACAMO command-and-control planes for nuclear missile submarines;
  • No. 20 is $334 million for four additional CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotors for shipboard delivery of urgent cargo; and
  • No. 30 is $306 million for two additional C-130Js. (It’s not clear if these are the same ones being used for TACAMO or not).

The Navy also asks for an additional $88.3 million for its HELIOS laser, which can shoot down drones and possibly missiles, (item No. 23) and an additional $126 million (No. 26) to develop its sea-launched hypersonic missile, Conventional Prompt Strike. The Navy’s intensely interested in offensive hypersonics and defensive lasers for, again, a high-tech clash with China.