At the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on the Maritime Force and Delivery Force, participants questioned the reductions in Navy shipbuilding and related accounts in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2026 budget.
The "Technical Supplement to the 2026 Fiscal Year Budget Appendix" released by the White House Office of Management and Budget on May 30 shows that the US Navy's "Shipbuilding and Conversion" (SCN) account budget is expected to be US$20.8 billion. However, Rep. Joe Courtney from Connecticut pointed out that the budget is "a substantial decrease from the actual $36.6 billion allocated in fiscal 2025 last year." "It's very simple math, the budget is $15.7 billion less than last year," Courtney said. He pointed out that the current budget appendix only lists the total amount of each account, and there is no specific project details.
He further questioned that the "mediation bill" that has not been passed was told to fill the gap, which provided $33 billion in funding for naval shipbuilding, "but only about half of the funds were explicitly used for traditional ship procurement under the SCN account."
He warned: "How can we be assured that these differences will be filled? In particular, the mediation bill clearly states that the funds can be used in four years by September 30, 2029. In addition to a Virginia-class submarine to be purchased in fiscal 2026, the other naval ships mentioned in the bill do not specify the specific procurement year."
Despite the huge budget uncertainty, naval officials stressed that the Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine program remains one of the most important procurement plans for the U.S. Navy.
Colombia-class submarines are still the priority project for the Navy's current procurement work
