A U.S. Navy official has said the service branch faces a budget shortfall of $848 million in its maintenance and operations funds that could potentially delay the deployment of some ships, Defense News reported Thursday.Christopher P. Cavas writes the service branch plans to postpone overhaul work on one submarine and four surface ships from fiscal year 2016’s fourth quarter into the first quarter of FY 2017 in an effort to curb spending in FY 2016.
The unidentified Navy official told Defense News that the move to push overhaul work on those ships into the next fiscal year will increase the required budget for such work by approximately $473 million and result in additional scheduling problems in FY 2017.
Other measures that the service branch plans to take to limit spending in 2016 include restrictions on the flying hours of the Carrier Air Wing 1 and deferrals in other contracts as well as in continuous maintenance for the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, America amphibious ready group and Makin Island amphibious assault ship, Cavas reports.
According to the report, the service branch’s decision to impose a one-month extension on the deployment of the Harry S. Truman carrier battle group will require $91 million in additional operations budget.
