Navy races to move plan to buy combat ships through lame-duck session

Navy acquisition officials are stepping up their efforts to convince key lawmakers on defense panels to provide the necessary authorization for the plan. In the process, they have to wrestle with a compressed and crowded legislative calendar. 

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Nov. 3 informed key lawmakers that his service is considering buying 10 new shore-hugging ships from both Austal USA and a team of Marinette Marine and Lockheed Martin. The Navy’s rationale for this approach is that competition between the builders has significantly reduced the price of the ships. 

{mosads}The littoral combat ships are designed to sweep for mines in coastal waters, fight pirates and chase drug smugglers.

The new strategy would be a departure from the plan to buy only 10 littoral combat ships from one winning contractor. The Navy cannot move ahead with the new proposal without congressional authorization. 

“We are working very closely with Congress,” said Capt. Cate Mueller, a Navy spokeswoman. “We are sending people over to brief those who have questions.” 

The Navy’s acquisition chief, Sean Stackley, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill. The Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, and the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Ashton Carter, this week publicly made the case to use two shipbuilders. 

The Navy needs a green light from Congress by mid-December, when the companies’ bid proposals for the contract are set to expire. Without congressional backing, the service would select one winner, as originally planned. 

“It is in a very short period of time,” said Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.), the leading Republican on the House Armed Services panel with jurisdiction over Navy acquisition and policies. Akin is expected to take the reins of that panel in January. 

“It is a very turbulent airspace in the next few weeks, because everything is changing and turning over at the end of the year,” Akin said in an interview. “It is asking a lot politically to move something that is a fairly weighty decision in a fairly short period of time.” 

Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and the Defense panel, and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this week that they liked the Navy’s new proposal. 

“They’ve got a good argument. They’ve got the benefits of competition,” Levin said on Wednesday. 

“Competition. … That is how the price came down. I want two companies,” Inouye said. 

Alabama’s Republican senators, Richard Shelby, a defense appropriator, and Jeff Sessions, a defense authorizer, welcomed the Navy’s plan. And so did another defense appropriator, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.).

Southern Alabama could gain as many as 2,000 new jobs from the program, since Austal USA, a unit of Australia’s Austal Ltd., is based in Mobile. Wisconsin also stands to gain several thousand jobs since Marinette Marine, a unit of the Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri, is based in Marinette, Wis.

The Navy may hit a snag on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, including Akin, want the Navy to disclose the prospective price tag of the new littoral ships. The Navy cannot disclose the exact numbers because the competition between Austal and Marinette Marine is still under way and that information is proprietary. 

“I am asking for the hard numbers. … Show me the numbers,” Akin said. 

“My job is to take a look at what is right for the Navy and the taxpayer.” 

Akin is scheduled to meet with Stackley on Thursday to question the details of the new plan. 

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), who leads the Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces panel, already met with Navy officials this week, but indicated he wanted more detail on the price. 

“I want to see the price. If the price is right, then they made the right decision,” Taylor told The Hill. He said that he only received a range of numbers. 

“Given the history of that program, whoever is in charge has to ensure the price is the delivered price,” said Taylor. 

The Navy last year devised a new purchasing strategy after the littoral combat ship program was plagued by delays and ballooning costs. Lawmakers grew frustrated with the program after the cost of one ship more than doubled, to at least $460 million.

Teams led by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin built previous versions of the ship before the Navy overhauled the program.

Under its revised strategy, the Navy planned to award a contract worth about $5 billion for 10 ships and five combat systems for those vessels. The Navy in 2012 was planning to award another five ships to a competing shipyard.

Separate from the acquisition strategy spanning from 2010 to 2014, the Navy also planned to buy four ships in fiscal 2015.

Overall, the Navy is now looking to buy 20 ships over five years instead of the 19 it had previously planned to purchase.

The Navy plans to buy a total of 55 of the ships. The entire deal could be worth as much as $28 billion over several decades.