USNI News:
Today the Senate and House Armed Services Committees announced the details of their compromise Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. This conference report, which merges the bills each committee passed earlier this year to create policy and spending authorization for this current fiscal year, allows $626 billion in base budget spending and $66 billion more for the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund.
The bill authorizes $26.2 billion for 14 battle force ships — $6.3 billion and five ships more than the Trump Administration request – $1.5 billion and incremental funding authority for either the lead ship in the LX(R) dock landing ship replacement program or the next amphibious transport dock, which would serve as a bridge ship to LX(R) production; $4.3 billion to buy 24 F-35B and 10 F-35C Joint Strike Fighters for the Marine Corps and Navy; $1.9 billion for 24 F/A-18E-F Super Hornets; and much more.
