Letter to John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jack Reed, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Funding for Virginia Class Submarines

Letter

Dear Chairman McCain and Ranking Member Reed,

American naval power plays a critical role in protecting America's national security, deterring aggression, and guarding the shipping lanes that enable international trade and America's economic vitality. A critical component of this naval power is the Navy's attack submarine fleet. The Virginia Class attack submarine provides combatant commanders an invaluable strike capacity, as well as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and special operations force projection platform. That is why, as Chair of the Senate Armed Services Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee and a member of the Seapower Subcommittee, I urge the Senate Armed Services Committee to fully support and authorize the Department of the Navy's request for two Virginia Class Attack Submarines per year from fiscal year (FY) 2016 - 2020.

There are currently 54 attack submarines in the Navy's inventory. Despite that number, the Navy is only able to meet about half of combatant commander requests for attack submarines. In response to my question, Vice Admiral Joseph P. Mulloy, the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources, testified on March 18, 2015, "We're meeting approximately 54% of [combatant commander] requests from our forces out there right now with the submarine force we have."

The Navy has a validated requirement for 48 attack submarines. However, as the Navy retires Los Angeles Class submarines more quickly than we are building Virginia Class submarines to replace them, the Navy's attack submarine fleet will drop to only 41 in fiscal year 2029. This smaller attack submarine fleet, combined with an increasing demand for the unique capabilities they provide, will result in the Navy meeting an even smaller percentage of combatant commander requests for attack submarines.

This impending shortfall of attack submarines is particularly problematic as the threats to our surface fleet grow, potential adversaries build their submarine fleets, and our allies assess whether America's rebalance to the Asia Pacific is more rhetoric or reality. In the coming years, we will need more attack submarines forward deployed around the world-not fewer.

While the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) will help mitigate some of the lost undersea strike capacity associated with the declining number of attack submarines, a submarine can only be at one location at a time. As Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has testified, "Quantity has a quality all its own."
That is why it is so important that the Senate Armed Services Committee fully support and authorize the Department of the Navy's request to build two Virginia Class submarines in FY 2016, as well as each subsequent year at least through 2020. By authorizing the multi-year procurement for the Virginia class submarine in 2014, Congress enabled the Navy to effectively purchase ten submarines for the price of nine. It is essential that Congress continue to provide full and timely funding for Virginia Class submarine production-so this highly successful program can continue to produce the submarines are combatant commanders need.

I look forward to continuing to work with both of you to ensure that our combatant commanders have the attack submarine fleet they require to fully protect the United States and our interests.

Source