House Authorizers Add $500 Million for 2nd Destroyer as Bath Iron Works Warns of Layoffs
Updated
Updated · USNI News · May 26
House Authorizers Add $500 Million for 2nd Destroyer as Bath Iron Works Warns of Layoffs
1 articles · Updated · USNI News · May 26
$500 million in FY2027 incremental funding would let the Navy buy a second Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyer, reversing the service’s current plan to request only one ship.
That single-ship request would likely send DDG-150 to HII Ingalls, leaving General Dynamics Bath Iron Works without a new destroyer contract in FY2027 and raising layoff fears in Maine.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao defended the one-destroyer plan by citing Bath’s backlog—11 ships on contract, including seven under construction—and said the Navy can add ships in later years.
Maine lawmakers argued the steadier two-destroyer cadence is needed to protect the surface-combatant industrial base, even as Bath works to lift output toward 1.5 ships a year.
The House Armed Services Committee will mark up the FY2027 bill on June 4; the same chairman’s mark also backs $1 billion in advance procurement for the new BBG(X) program with technology-maturity limits.
Can the US Navy stabilize its shipbuilding workforce while pursuing risky, next-generation warship designs?
Is a $17 billion battleship with unproven weapons a future super-ship or a budget black hole?