USS Dewey (DDG 105) fires an SM-2 missile.
WASHINGTON: The House Appropriations Committee deviates from the Biden budget in several significant places in its draft bill released this morning. The HAC-Defense subcommittee will take up the bill tomorrow.
The biggest single item: The bill adds $915 million to Navy shipbuilding – and cuts a logistics support ship – to fund a warship, a second DDG-51-class guided missile destroyer. That ship had been planned in previous years but was then cut in Biden’s 2022 budget. It featured as the Chief of Naval Operations’ No. 1 unfunded requirement. Key legislators had already signaled a push to restore the destroyer.
The biggest single cancellation reflects the fact that the Democrats control the HAC today.
The only prominent cancelled RDT&E program in the committee’s summary is the Navy’s sea-launched nuclear missile, long a favorite target of Democrats and arms controllers. Given the Biden administration’s strong support for nuclear modernization, it will be intriguing to watch whether this cut is mirrored by the Senate Appropriations Committee, also controlled by Democrats. Our bet is it gets funded when the bill moves to conference.
The bill also adds aircraft to all the services:
- Six additional MQ-9 Reaper drones, split between the Marines and Air Force – doubling the administration’s request from six to 12.
- Four additional C-130J turboprops of different variants, including the baseline C-130 transport, Marine Corps KC-130 tanker, and Special Ops MC-130. That increases the administration’s request from nine to 13.
- Two additional CH-53K helicopters for the Marines, upping the request from nine to 11.
- $212 million worth of Black Hawk helicopters, a third more than the request, chiefly for the Army.
Overall, the bill increases procurement $1.7 billion. It also increases readiness funding by $696 million; including a full $1 billion for maintenance and training – adding “flying hours, tank miles, and steaming days.”
To make this work, the bill trims military personnel by $488 million, to $166.8 billion, although end strength is untouched except for the Marine Corps Reserve. The bill also cuts Biden’s request for Research, Development, Test, & Evaluation by $1.6 billion, to $110.4 billion. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had boasted that the Biden request would be the largest such request in history. Will that cut prompt pushback from the administration after the defense appropriations bill makes it through conference?
