SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE MAINTENANCE OF A 313-SHIP NAVY.

SEC. 1021. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE MAINTENANCE OF A 313-SHIP NAVY.(a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings:(1) The Department of the Navy has a stated requirement for a 313-ship fleet.(2) The Navy can better meet this requirement—(A) by procuring sufficient numbers of new ships; and(B) by ensuring the sound material condition of existing ships that will enable the Navy to utilize them for their full planned service lives.(3) When procuring new classes of ships, the Navy must exercise greater caution than it has exhibited to date in proceeding from one stage of the acquisition cycle to the next before a ship program has achieved a level of maturity that significantly lowers the risk of cost growth and schedule slippage.(4) In retaining existing assets, the Navy can do a much better job of achieving the full planned service lives of ships and extending the service lives of certain ships so as to keep their unique capabilities in the fleet while the Navy takes the time necessary to develop and field next-generation capabilities under a low risk program.(5) The Navy can undertake certain development approaches that can help the Navy control the total costs of ownership of a ship or class of ships, including emphasizing common hull designs, open architecture combat systems, and other common ship systems in order to achieve efficiency in acquiring and supporting various classes of ships.(6) The Navy needs to continue its efforts toward achieving an open architecture for existing combat systems, as this will have great benefit in reducing the costs and risks of fielding new classes of ships, and will yield recurring savings from reducing the costs of buying later ships in a program and reducing life cycle support costs for ships and classes of ships.(7) The Navy can also undertake other measures to acquire new ships and maintain the current fleet with greater efficiency, including—(A) greater use of fixed-price contracts;(B) maximizing competition (or the option of competition) throughout the life cycle of its ships;(C) entering into multi-year contracts when warranted; and(D) employing an incremental approach to developing new technologies.(b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that—(1) the Navy should meet its requirement for a 313-ship fleet until such time that modifications to the Navy’s ship fleet force structure are warranted, and the Secretary of the Navy provides Congress with a justification of any proposed modifications, supported by rigorous and sufficient warfighting analysis;(2) the Navy should take greater care to achieve the full planned service life of existing ships and reduce the incidence of early ship decommissioning;123 STAT. 2445(3) the Navy should exercise greater restraint on the acquisition process for ships in order to achieve on-time, on-cost shipbuilding programs; and(4) Congress should support the Navy when it is acting responsibly to undertake measures that can help the Navy achieve the requirement for a 313-ship fleet and maintain a fleet that is adequate to meet the national security needs of the United States.