The Navy asked for 24 new aircraft but no more ships in its 2018 list of unfunded priorities that it sent to legislators this week, according to The Hill.
The 48-item list asks for $4.8 billion in weapons, equipment, operations, and maintenance and development that was not in the Navy's $171.5 billion 2018 fiscal year budget released in May, The Hill's report said.
The document includes no ships, which was unexpected, since the Navy said in December of 2016 that it wanted to enlarge the fleet to 355 vessels, according to the United States Naval Institute.
The planes on the list of unmet requirements are ten F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, six P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, four F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, and four CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, the report said.
Congress asks each service every year for unfunded lists, which help legislators with items to consider as it works through budget requests, according to Defense News.
The Navy is on record to support one additional littoral combat ship to the one already in the original fiscal year 2018 request, although it did not make the list, according to Defense News.
Back on May 16, Admiral John Richardson, the U.S. Navy's chief of operations, said the Navy needs more warships because of increasing “maritime competition.”
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