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 was procured in FY2008 and is scheduled to enter service in 2015. The ship's procurement cost is estimated in the proposed FY2010 budget at $10,846 million in then-year dollars -- $389 million (about 3.7%) more than the estimate in the FY2009 budget. Although CVN-78 was procured in FY2008, it is being funded with 4-year incremental funding across FY2008-FY2011. The proposed FY2010 requests $739.3 million in procurement funding 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 launch system (EMALS) could delay the schedule for building the ship and increase the ship's construction cost. CVN-79 was scheduled under the FY2009 budget to be procured in FY2012. Under the proposed FY2010 budget, the ship's procurement would be deferred one year, to FY2013. CVN-79's procurement cost was estimated in the FY2009 budget at about $9.2 billion in then-year dollars. The ship has been receiving advance procurement funding since FY2007. The proposed FY2010 budget requests $484.4 million in AP funding for the ship. (The FY2009 budget had projected that about $807 million would be requested in FY2010.) Deferring CVN-79's procurement to FY2013 may have increased its estimated procurement cost, and could also increase the cost of Virginia-class submarines under construction at the same shipyard.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 20, 2009
Accession Number
ADA501532

Entities

People

  • Ronald O'Rourke

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

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

Readers

  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting