Armed Services Panel: We Need to Buy More Aircraft Carriers

Lawmakers reportedly want to step up the acquisition pace for new aircraft carriers, calling for a new ship every three years instead of the current one-every-five-years pace outlined in the defense policy bill.

According to The Hill, a House Armed Services panel's subcommittee also wants the Navy to maintain 12 instead of 11 aircraft carriers.

The cost of the move wasn't revealed; it's expected to be known once the bill moves to the full committee, The Hill reported.

The committee's version of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act will include the plans, but quicker carrier procurement relies on congressional appropriators, The Hill noted.

"Congress is sending a clear signal that [12 is] where we believe they need to drive to and the only real way to get to 12 and stay at 12 is to do it on three-year centers," one aide told The Hill.

"We send that message and ideally the [Defense Department] would budget for it over the course of time."

The Navy earlier this month accepted delivery of the $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford, the first in a new class of supercarriers. The vessel took 12 years of construction and testing to complete.

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