Congress continues to question US Navy decision to cut Virginia-class …

US lawmakers are criticising the US Navy's decision to cut a Virginia-class submarine, similar to the one shown here, from the recent budget request. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

US lawmakers are continuing to question the US Navy (USN) fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget request that cuts a Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN) from its funding proposal.

Initially, the USN had planned for two Virginias for the fiscal year, but now the service is asking for only a single submarine in the FY 2025 request submitted earlier in 2024.

In recent hearings on the budget US lawmakers have criticised the Virginia submarine cut.

Washington State Congressman Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), continued the criticism on 1 May during a HASC hearing on the USN FY 2025 budget request.

Addressing USN Secretary Carlos Del Toro during the hearing, Smith said, “I know you have the same concerns, which led you to direct a 45-day review of shipbuilding. While I applaud the initiative, I do not believe this effort went far enough. The review accurately described the troubled state of most of our current shipbuilding programmes, but it failed to identify real substantive changes that could lead to improved cost and performance.”