MARITIME MATTERS NAVY TAKES HIT IN FISCAL 2017 BUDGET

摘要

The Navy came out the loser in a fiscal 2017 Defense Department budget request that revealed it was the only service to see a cut from 2016 funding levels, most of which came from the shipbuilding account. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter threw Navy officials a bone when he decided to buy two littoral combat ships (LCSs) next year despite much-publicized plans to sharply cut the size of the planned fleet. Carter has made it clear that the shore-hugging vessels, which have suffered through cost overruns, schedule delays and lingering questions about their missions, simply are not core to meeting the military's needs now and in the future. In a constrained budget, they rank low on his priority list and, as such, he wants to field a modest fleet of 40 of the ships, 12 fewer than the Navy wanted to buy.