Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress

Abstract

CVN-78 and CVN-79 are the first two ships in the Navy?s new Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. CVN-78: CVN-78 was procured in FY2008, and is scheduled to enter service in 2015. The ship's procurement cost was estimated in the FY2009 budget at about $10.5 billion in then-year dollars. Although CVN-78 was procured in FY2008, it is being funded with four-year incremental funding across FY2008-FY2011, and the FY2009 budget projected that about $688 million in procurement funding would be requested in FY2010 to help complete the ship?s procurement cost. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported in June 2008 that it estimates that CVN-78 will cost about $900 million more than the Navy estimates, and that if "CVN-78 experienced cost growth similar to that of other lead ships that the Navy has purchased in the past 10 years, costs could be much higher still." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and other observers have expressed concern that difficulties in developing the CVN-78's new electromagnetic aircraft catapult (called the electromagnetic aircraft launch system, or EMALS), could delay the schedule for building the ship and increase the ship's construction cost. GAO highlighted the issue in a March 2009 report to Congress. CVN-79: CVN-79 was scheduled under the FY2009 budget to be procured in FY2012. On April 6, 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a number of decisions regarding the Department of Defense's (DOD's) proposed FY2010 defense budget. Among these was a decision to "shift the Navy Aircraft Carrier program to a five-year build cycle[,] placing it on a more fiscally sustainable path." This decision, if approved by Congress, would defer the scheduled procurement of CVN-79 by one year, from FY2012 to FY2013.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 07, 2009
Accession Number
ADA498299

Entities

People

  • Ronald O'Rourke

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Carriers
  • Aircrafts
  • Carrier Based Aircraft
  • Catapult-Assisted Takeoff Systems
  • Cvn-79 Uss John F. Kennedy
  • Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems
  • Ford-Class
  • Governments
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Navy Aircraft
  • Nimitz-Class
  • Procurement
  • Ships
  • Uss George H.W. Bush
  • Uss Gerald R. Ford
  • Uss Nimitz

Readers

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  • Military Logistics and Supply Chain Management
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting