The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the U.S. Navy‘s plan to increase its fleet size to 355 ships over three decades would cost $60 billion more than originally projected, DoD Buzz reported Wednesday.
Hope Hodge Seck writes CBO’s analysis showed the 30-year shipbuilding plan would cost approximately 30 percent more than the military branch spent to construct vessels in the past three years.
The plan was released last month and called for the addition of one aircraft carrier, four amphibious assault ships, eight auxiliary ships, 16 large surface combatants and 18 attack submarines to the Navy’s current 308-ship requirement.
The report said the Navy could pay much more than expected because CBO found the military service’s shipbuilding cost estimates were not high enough and the branch did not include miscellaneous costs in the budget
Lt. Seth Clarke, a Navy spokesman, told Military.com that the plan was meant to highlight operational requirements rather than the fiscal aspects of the fleet plan.