Since the presentation of the Pentagon's 2025 budget proposal last March, the Pentagon and Congress have been at odds over the order of a second Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine.
Following the passage through parliamentary committees in June, both Representatives and Senators voted in favor of this order. However, to finance the $400 million needed, parliamentarians reduced the budget planned for the F/A-XX fighter program to only $53,8 million, compared to $1,5 billion, in 2024.
Today, it is the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin himself, who is joining the debate, calling on parliamentarians to respect the planning proposed by the US Navy, at the risk of seeing the 6th generation fighter program to replace the Super Hornet, postponed by several years, and missing the window for its entry into service, planned for 2033 to 2037.
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US Congress, Pentagon at loggerheads over order of second Virginia-class SSN in 2025 for US Navy
In June 2024, as part of the Pentagon's 2025 budget study, the US Congress announced a rather drastic measure. Indeed, the Senate authorized the financing, for this fiscal year, of the first part of an order for a second Virginia-class submarine, for $400 million.
To fund this program, the Senate had simply eliminated funding provided by the US Navy for the next-generation F/A-XX fighter program this year. Earlier, the House of Representatives had been even more radical, authorizing a funding envelope of $1 billion for this second SNA in 2025, again to the detriment of the F/A-XX, and other programs deemed priorities by the Pentagon and the US Navy.
However, for the US Navy, there is no question of further delaying its 6th generation combat aircraft program, whose credits, in 2025, had already been significantly reduced, going from $1,5 billion in 2024 to only $400 million in 2025, to free up the credits necessary for priority investments in terms of industrial modernization, equipment availability, and strengthening the defenses of bases in the Pacific.
However, in the Senate budget plan, this program, which is also considered a priority by the US Navy, received only $53,8 million, a very insufficient amount which would mark the sudden halt of the dynamic, and a postponement of several years, thereafter.
This is essentially what Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, explained in a letter addressed to the parliamentarians of the two defense committees of Congress"Adding a second submarine would force the department to cut the next-generation fighter program by $400 million, rendering the fighter program unworkable and degrading the Navy's ability to field the next-generation aircraft capabilities required between 2033 and 2037," he explained.
And to call on American parliamentarians to respect, strictly speaking, the budget plan presented by the US Navy, which represents, from its point of view, the best compromise to achieve the objectives sought, while respecting the budgetary and industrial realities of the moment.
Two agendas that regularly clash between the Pentagon and Congress
In this issue, as in many others, two often divergent agendas are in radical opposition. On the one hand, American parliamentarians must respond to national and local demands, on the electoral level, particularly in this year of major elections.
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