In response to a Congressional mandate, the Department of the Navy recently began issuing annual reports that describe its 30-year plans for ship construction. In the report released last year, the Navy presented a plan to expand its battle force fleet from 285 ships at that time to 313 ships over the long run. That plan, which was consistent with the Navy's proposed budget for fiscal year 2007, reflected the department's view of its future naval requirements and the types of ships needed to meet those requirements. In May 2006, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a study analyzing that plan and estimating its potential costs. The Navy has since updated its long-term shipbuilding plan for fiscal year 2008. The current plan resembles the previous one in that it envisions a 313-ship fleet, but the timing and size of purchases have changed for several categories of ships. The most important difference is that the total number of ships that the Navy hopes to buy over 30 years has grown from 280 to 293. That 13-ship increase primarily reflects two factors: (1) an acceleration in the building of certain ships, such as the DDG(X); and (2) a shift in the time period under consideration (the Navy intends to buy more ships in 2037 than in 2007, so moving from a 2007-2036 planning window to a 2008-2037 window increases the number of vessels purchased over 30 years). Despite the rise in the number of ships to be purchased, the Navy estimates that the average annual spending needed to carry out its 2008 plan will be the same as for the 2007 plan. This report updates CBO's earlier analysis to reflect the Navy's new long-term plan for shipbuilding. Unlike the Navy, CBO concludes that the 2008 plan will require greater average annual spending over 30 years for new ships than the 2007 plan did. The increase stems primarily from the growth in ship purchases (because of the acceleration in construction and the shift in the planning period).


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren