Defense News:
WASHINGTON — The US Navy’s fiscal 2016 budget submissions in general enjoy support on Capitol Hill, but questions remain about several programs and certain strategic direction aspects.
With its markup released Wednesday morning, the House Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee provided several answers about how the debate could go, showing strong backing across the board for shipbuilding and war-fighting programs…
The subcommittee continues to strongly resist Navy efforts to reduce or delay combat system modernization in cruisers and destroyers. Full funding for Aegis destroyer modernization is provided for 2016 despite the Navy’s removal of five destroyer modernizations from the future years defense plan. The mark also “prohibits removing the missile defense capabilities of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, as well as prohibiting their retirement, inactivation, or storage,” according to the subcommittee’s press release. Lawmakers also limited the term of cruiser overhauls to two years “to prevent unnecessary layup of these critical assets at a time of growing demand for missile defense capabilities…”
