Some construction costs for the next Ford-class ships are increasing as the US Navy (USN) accommodates contract changes and lessons learned from lead ship aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), according to USN documents released on 28 May to back up the service's fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget request.
Altogether, the USN is requesting about USD2.9 billion for Ford-class construction programmes in FY 2022.
The USN is requesting an additional USD368.4 million in FY 2022 for the carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79), compared with the FY 2021 budget submission, “to support the government-responsible portion of the shipbuilding contract overrun and incorporation of the [F-35] Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as mandated by the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and includes the CVN 79 single-phase delivery, which includes integration and installation of GFE (government-furnished equipment) systems”, the USN said in the budget documents.
Due to be delivered in June 2024, Kennedy will need an additional USD47 million in the FY 2022 request to cover more “electronics” work related to JSF-capability needs, USN budget request documents show.
Other JSF-related funding will be needed to cover costs associated with the Autonomic Logistics Information System (JSF ALIS).
Part of the overall requested FY 2022 increase is needed to cover costs of “the addition of the CVN 79 government test team to support single-phase delivery and additional engineering support”, the USN said.
Some of the funding is needed to pay for “a sunk cost paid for overruns associated with receiving the Volume Search Radar (VSR) from the DDG 1000 [Zumwalt-class guided-missile] programme and was originally planned for installation on CVN 79”, the USN said.
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