Navy Briefs Congress on $29 Billion in Middle East Carrier Costs

U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the service will run into financial constraints for training and exercises starting in the July timeframe due to the current pace of operations.

“I will have to start making decisions to change training, operations, certification, events, those type of things we do to generate our force in the July timeframe,” Caudle stated. The Navy currently has two aircraft carriers deployed to the Middle East.

Caudle confirmed that funds for current Navy operations in the Middle East would come from a defense supplemental. Rep. Ken Calvert, chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, stated that the supplemental must be sent to lawmakers as soon as possible.

“I don’t know who’s making this final decision to get the supplemental over here, but we need to get it over here. Both sides need to look at it. Obviously, the Senate needs to look at it. It’s going to take some time. And at the same time, we’re going to be doing the base bill for defense appropriations.

But it seems to me, based on what you just told me, that we’re going to need to do the supplemental first and get this funded as quickly as possible,” Calvert stated.

Costs from Operation Epic Fury in the Middle East have climbed to $29 billion, Pentagon acting comptroller Jules “Jay” Hurst told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. The USS Gerald R. Ford will likely require more maintenance once it returns home from its nearly 11-month deployment. A standard deployment for the USS Gerald R. Ford is seven months.

“For every 30 days that the ship is extended on deployment, it adds 6 percent of maintenance, so five months extra would add 30 percent for maintenance,” Sen. Hung Cao stated.