Navy Ship Acquisition: Options for Lower-Cost Ship Designs - Issues for Congress. CRS Report for Congress

Abstract : Rising procurement costs for Navy ships have recently emerged as a matter of concern for both Navy officials and some Members of Congress who track Navy-related issues. Combined with constraints on ship-procurement funding, these rising costs have caused the Navy to reduce planned ship procurement rates. The issue for Congress is how to respond to rising Navy ship procurement costs. Aside from reducing planned ship procurement rates, one option would be to reduce procurement costs by shifting from currently planned designs to designs with lower unit procurement costs. Lower cost designs for attack submarines, aircraft carriers, larger surface combatants, and smaller surface combatants have been proposed in recent reports by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), DoD's Office of Force Transformation (OFT), and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). Options for lower cost designs can be generated by reducing ship size; shifting from nuclear to conventional propulsion; shifting from a hull built to military survivability standards to a hull built to commercial ship survivability standards; or using a common hull design for multiple classes of ships. Compared to the current Virginia-class, nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) design, lower cost options include a non-nuclear-powered submarine equipped with an air-independent propulsion (AIP) system and a reduced-cost SSN design using new technologies now being developed. Compared to today's large, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, lower cost options include a medium-sized, conventionally powered carrier based on either the LHA(R) amphibious assault ship design or a commercial-like hull, and a small, high-speed carrier using a surface effect ship (SES)/catamaran hull. Compared to the current 14,000-ton DD(X) destroyer design, lower cost options include a newly designed 9,000-ton surface combatant (SC(X)), a 6,000-ton frigate (FFG(X)), or a low-cost gunfire support ship.