More than a dozen ship maintenance availabilities – including aircraft carriers, submarines and surface ships, but predominately affecting guided-missile destroyers, USNI News understands – would be canceled altogether. And,
, about $5 billion in Navy shipbuilding funds to buy the LHA-8 amphibious assault ship and other ships would go unused, due to being in the wrong part of the budget and the Navy not having the authority under a CR to move that money into more useful budget lines.
The Navy has not yet begun to take major steps such as canceling availabilities or deployments, but the service would begin taking actions next month if lawmakers don’t act to pass a defense spending bill.
In a March 16 House Armed Services readiness subcommittee hearing, Vice Adm. Joseph Mulloy, deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources (OPNAV N8), told lawmakers that “at this point in time, we have not taken those over-actions to shut down air wings; we have looked at deferring maintenance, but no availabilities have been canceled.”
He noted, though, that some smaller actions, such as slowing down the purchase of spare parts for non-deployed ships, have already begun. If any further action takes place due to insufficient funding in FY 2017, he warned the subcommittee that the real impact would be felt in FY 2018 and beyond.
“What happens is, if air wings actually shut down, instead of taking a month to get back flying, it takes months. So the impacts would ripple through the end of ‘17 but also into a significant part of ‘18,” he said.
“When we get to Fiscal Year ‘18, the ships and squadrons not working up or maintaining now would be not deploying in ’18. We would start seeing the same carrier gaps, start seeing other impacts around the world, but largely it would be in ’18. Not as much in ‘17 because we keep the deployed forces ready.”
Additionally, USNI News learned from the Navy information, money would have to be moved around to cover basic sailor payroll costs, and bonus payments would be stopped or delayed. Sailors and their families would see delays in moves to new duty stations, and accessions would be cut, leading to gapped billets at sea and ashore. Air shows and fleet weeks would all be canceled to help pay for other operations and maintenance needs, and critical shore construction projects – many of which have been postponed for years, repeatedly used as bill-payers for other spending needs – such as runways, housing, piers and other waterfront infrastructure would be further delayed.
