The US Navy want to reduce the crew size for USS Jackson (LCS 6) in FY 2023 and decommission the ship the following fiscal year. (Michael Fabey)
As part of its continuing divest-to-invest budgeting strategy, the US Navy (USN) detailed more “divestment initiatives” in another round of proposed fiscal year (FY) 2023 documents released on 14 April.
For example, the USN proposed to eliminate the Sea-Launched Nuclear Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) programme that was in the research and development phase of acquisition.
“The programme was cost-prohibitive and the acquisition schedule would have delivered capability late to need,” the USN said in the documents. The service estimates savings of USD199 million in FY 2023 and about USD2.1 billion across the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP).
The USN also wants to eliminate the Snakehead Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV) programme.
“Misalignment of Snakehead LDUUV design and procurement efforts with submarine hosting interfaces resulted in limited availability of host platforms to conduct Snakehead operations,” the USN said. “Cost and schedule delays associated with LDUUV development and Virginia-class SSN integration prohibited further investment. Alternative submarine launch and recovery interface is limited to Modernized Dry Deck Shelter (Mod DDS).”
The divestment cancels the FY 2022 Phase 2 contract award and all planned procurements in the FYDP. The navy expects to save USD185 million in FY 2023 and USD516.8 million across the FYDP.
The service further proposed to divest the Virginia Class External Hull Treatment (XHT).
The proposal, the navy explains, “reoptimises XHT backfit portion of Acoustic Superiority (AS) package on Virginia class (VACL) Block III/IV nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) in the FYDP”.
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