Navy’s $257.6B budget includes decommissioning 4 San Diego-based warships
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Four battle force ships based in San Diego would be retired as part of the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Fiscal Year 2025 budget request.
The request, released Monday, is for a total of $257.6 billion — an increase of $1.8 billion from the prior year’s ask.
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It shows there are 10 ships planned for decommission, before the end of their intended service life. Four of them, are San Diego-based ships.
The $257.6 billion was divided into proposed allotments for active and reserve Navy and Marine Corps military personnel, civilian workers, operation and maintenance, procurement, research and development and family housing.
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“That’s a lot of crew and that’s also the support and everything else. But the thing is, is the Navy is also building ships and it’s not like San Diego, as a valuable Naval station, is going to go away,” Steve Ellis, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan budget watchdog group, and former Coast Guard Captain.
The DON’s budget proposal mentioned retiring 10 ships before their end-of-service life and nine additional ships, which included four ships based in San Diego. Those ships were mentioned in the Navy’s previous shipbuilding plan.
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The San Diego-based warships on the chopping block are the USS Lake Erie (a CG-70), a 30-year-old guided missile cruiser, and the USS Germantown (an LSD-42), an amphibious dock landing ship.
Plus, two Littoral combat ship (LCS) which have been controversial because of their high operating costs and alleged non-effective use — the USS Jackson (an LCS-6) and the USS Montgomery (an LCS-8).
USS Lake Erie (CG 70) cruises through the Pacific Ocean during Rim of Pacific Amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) arrives pierside at its new homeport, Naval Base San Diego, Oct. 15. Germantown shifted homeports from Sasebo to San Diego after serving as a forward-deployed ship in U.S. 7th Fleet since Jan. 5, 2011. (Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ethan Morrow) 190706-N-NI298-0136 CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Singapore (July 6, 2019) The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Montgomery (LCS 8) sits pierside at Changi Naval Base, Singapore, after arriving for a rotational deployment. Montgomery’s arrival in Singapore marks the fourth deployment of littoral combat ships to Southeast Asia. Fast, agile and networked surface combatants, LCS are optimized for operating in the near-shore environments. A rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB) launches from the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS 6), during a search and rescue exercise (SAREX).
The ships were chosen based on a “hull-by-hull assessment” which included looking at the material condition of the vessel, their cost and net war-fighting value, according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy Rear Admiral Ben Reynolds.
“The Navy bought a lemon. They had a bad acquisition with the LCS and it’s been a marred acquisition from the get go,” Ellis said. “It is more costly to have ships go out and break down that have to get towed in, or to put sailors lives in danger, in operating basically defective equipment.”
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The LCS ships were made to serve the nation for a minimum of 25 years, but the two planned for decommissioning in San Diego, the USS Jackson and USS Montgomery, had only served 7 to 8 years, according to the US Naval Institute News.
“The Navy has been making bad decisions about these ships, including being slow to decommission. But then that’s compounded by Congress getting in the way and preventing the Navy from decommissioning these,” Ellis claimed the LCS’ were flawed since the beginning.
As an anticipated return on investment, the DON asked for six battle force ships, including one SSN-774 (a submarine), two DDG-51s (missile destroyers), one FFG-62 (a Constellation-class guided-missile frigate), one LPD-17 (an amphibious transport dock ship) and one-LSM (a landing ship medium).
According to the DON, the 2025 budget request is “constrained” by the caps imposed under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, forcing the department to make “hard decisions.”
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