The aircraft would include four F-35C Joint Strike Fighters made by Lockheed Martin, four CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft made by Bell and Boeing, six P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and 10 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, both made by Boeing.
Lawmakers received the 48-item list, which contains equipment, weapons, development and operations equipment and maintenance assets totalling $4.8 billion, on May 30. The list items were not included in last month’s $171.5 billion fiscal budget for 2018.
The fact that no ships are included on the list comes as surprise, as US President Donald Trump made a larger Navy one of his top defense planks on the campaign trail and the Navy called to expand the fleet from 270 ships to 355.
If the expansion is enacted, the Navy would see the largest shipbuilding boom since the end of the Cold War, ideally creating tens of thousands of jobs for sailors.
Navy Times quoted then-Senator Jeff Sessions at the time saying, "Trump's plans are actually to build more ships and maintain a higher number of troops and aircraft. It will go a lot further than words to convince the world that we remain strong. It will help us to maintain the peace."
Matthew Paxton, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, said in early January. "Russia and China are going to continue to build up their navies … The complexities aren’t going to get any easier. The Navy, more than any of the services, is our forward presence. We’re going to need this Navy."
Last month, acting Navy Acquisition Chief Allison Stiller said the White House supports buying two additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), as the Navy’s 2018 request only called for one.
She said at the time, "The administration recognizes the criticality of our industrial base and supports funding a second LCS in FY-18," though she did not clarify how the new vessels would be paid for.
Although there are no ships on the unfunded list there is a request for $312 million for five ship-to-shore connectors made by Textron and $84 million for upgrades to the LCS survivability and lethality capabilities.
The Navy also asked for $110 million for a new LCS training facility in Florida at Naval Station Mayport and $31 million for the development of the ships’ over-the-horizon capabilities.
