Detail

by Rear Admiral Randy Crites  Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget | 12 March 2019

Today the FY 2020 budget request for the Department of the Navy (DON) was submitted to Congress. The $205.6 billion request (Base + Overseas Contingency Operations) represents a 4.8 percent increase from the FY19 enacted budget. This budget submission is strategy-driven and provides the resources required to strengthen the DON in this new era of great power competition.

This year’s budget submission reflects a balanced and holistic approach to expanding DON’s competitive advantage by supporting a bigger, better and more ready Navy and Marine Corps team. To meet demand signals from combatant commanders, expand global influence and prevail in any warfighting contingency, we must increase capacity.

To maintain our competitive advantage for the future fight, we must invest in superior and innovative technologies that increase lethality. And to recapture strategic momentum, we must be ready to compete in ways that are agile, unpredictable, cost-imposing and sustainable.

Our nation depends on our Naval Force to rise to global challenges and protect the American homeland. To maintain dominance in a dynamic threat environment, we must continue to build a bigger, better, networked, talented, agile and more ready fleet.

While the FY19 and FY18 budgets focused on achieving wholeness and restoring readiness, the FY20 President’s Budget (PB20) request aligns people, capabilities and processes to better position the Navy and Marine Corps to compete, deter and win.

We accomplish this by maintaining our focus on six specific dimensions:

• Building a bigger fleet – We are building toward a 355-ship navy.
• Building a better fleet – We need to accelerate and invest in game-changing capabilities.
• Building a networked fleet – Information sharing is a force multiplier.
• Building a talented fleet – Our people have always been our greatest advantage.
• Building an agile fleet – The Navy must work as part of the joint and combined force.
• Building a ready fleet – A bigger, better, networked, talented and agile fleet contributes to potential naval power, but actual naval power must include the critical dimension of readiness.

In order to deliver the capacity, agility and sustainability needed to win the high-end fight, the FY20 budget requests funding for more ships, submarines, aircraft and people. The budget provides for a deployable battle force of 301 ships in FY20 including 11 aircraft carriers and 10 big deck amphibious ships that serve as the foundation of our carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups.

This year’s budget request funds 12 new-construction battle force ships in FY20, including one aircraft carrier (CVN), three Nuclear Attack Submarines (SSNs), three guided-missile destroyers (DDGs), one small surface combatant (FFG(X)), two Fleet Replenishment Oilers (T-AOs) and two Towing, Salvage and Rescue ships (T-ATSs), as well as two Large Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs); and, 55 battle force ships/10 Large USVs across the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP). 

Funding for the best platforms and technologies must be met with investments in personnel by recruiting top talent, providing them with training, and delivering quality of life improvements for our Sailors, Marines and civilians. Since investing in our personnel enables the strength needed to compete and win, the FY20 budget proposes a 3.1 percent pay raise and provides funding for key end strength increases. 

In addition to being bigger, we must be better. To ensure our success fighting tomorrow’s conflicts and deal with the re-emergence of great power competition, we must invest in superior, innovative and leap-ahead technologies to increase lethality.

As such, Research & Development funding increases this year by 9.5 percent from FY19 to FY20. To maintain our competitive advantage, this year’s budget increase targets the development of longer-range and hypersonic weapons, unmanned aircraft and vessels, artificial intelligence and additional capabilities aligned with the Future Force.

Our investments in capabilities and capacity must be complemented by increased readiness to enable the Navy, as part of the Joint Force, to maintain superiority in key maritime regions and promote U.S. interests globally. To increase readiness, this year’s budget requests funding to continue on the current path toward reducing the backlog of deferred readiness and modernization. It invests in our industrial base and infrastructure, which is a key enabler of Navy readiness. And, it supports active measures to reform business processes and drive efficiencies to increase speed, improve value and support the warfighter.

Installation readiness is another key contributor to warfighting readiness, and PB20 requests funding for 22 military construction projects, including six overseas projects for Forward Deployed Naval Forces, as well as covers the remaining costs of three FY19 Military Construction Projects fully authorized but incrementally funded by Congress. While our competition leverages all available resources on behalf of compromising American maritime dominance, we must continue to accelerate our efforts in all domains to stay ahead.

The President’s Budget request for FY20 takes a holistic and balanced approach to enabling a bigger, better and more ready Navy and Marine Corps team that is prepared to deter and compete against those who seek to threaten American prosperity and strategic influence. The investments outlined in the FY20 budget strengthen the capacity, capabilities and readiness of the Navy and Marine Corps team in accordance with the National Defense Strategy.