Meanwhile, the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments, a Washington think tank, has issued a list of 10 projects that could be threatened by a continuing resolution. It lists the submarine program along with Ford-class carriers, which are designed and built exclusively at the Newport News shipyard, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
The 2017 budget requested a 7 percent increase in carrier funding for a total of $2.7 billion, note co-authors Katherine Blakeley and Maureen Smolskis. It would spend $30 million on procurement that had been previously budgeted for research, development and testing. That includes items such as electronics that have long lead times.
In all, President Obama's 2017 budget request lists $1.37 billion for advance procurement in the carrier program
The center notes that the third Ford-class carrier, the future USS Enterprise, is scheduled to begin construction in December 2017. Any delays on this program would ripple through future schedules.