Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

I'd like to just sort of add a few points to the gentleman's prior comments.

First of all, the fleet is not being replaced one to one--the current fleet size is 14, and the new fleet will be 12. The program has already been delayed by 2 years because of earlier reductions in the defense budget. That 2-year delay is going to push us right up to 2021, which is when the aging fleet which is in play right now is going to start being decommissioned over time in terms of the reduction. Because of investment in design and development, which is what this amendment is focused on, we have saved $2 billion per vessel from where the Navy started when this project first commenced a number of years ago. It was $7 billion, and we are down to $5 billion per boat in terms of the projected costs that the Navy has actually come forward with.

I would just lastly note that the strategic review, which has been done under Secretary Gates and under Secretary Hagel, has repeatedly put SSBN replacement at the absolute apex in terms of national defense priorities, again, for a lot of the reasons the prior speaker indicated. Sea-based nuclear deterrence fits in perfectly well with the START Treaty, but as for the math of eight subs for 1,000 warheads, if you're going to have sailors being back home after deployment and if you're going to have repairs and maintenance, you'll need 12 as a bare minimum--a far cry from the Cold War days when 41 for Freedom was actually the size of this fleet.

We are now down to the bare bones, and we should not cut it any further. I would oppose the amendment.

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