Navy League 2026: CNO plans to seek another destroyer in fiscal year 2027

The proposed fiscal year 2027 US Navy budget includes funding for only one Flight III DDG 51 destroyer, like the ship shown here. (HII)

While the proposed US Navy (USN) fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget request would cut the current Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG) production line in half, Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO), said he will try to find a way to fund another DDG.

The FY 2027 budget request includes about USD3.3 billion for a single Flight III DDG 51 ship, although current production rate is about two ships a year, according to budget documents released on 21 April.

“My goal would be to be ensure the line stays flat – two per year,” Adm Caudle told reporters on 20 April during a media round table at the Navy League Sea Air Space Maritime Symposium in National Harbor, Maryland.

“I will fight to keep that funding as flat as it can be,” Adm Caudle said. “I have other ways to work that in – [such as] the unfunded priorities list [and] budget posture hearings.”

After the budget request is submitted to Congress, services typically provide lawmakers with a list of their ‘unfunded priorities' – items they say they want but were not funded in the proposed spending plan. Lawmakers use budget posture hearings to determine whether they will accept the executive branch's budget as proposed or cut or add things, such as vessels like DDGs.

The navy needed to cut down on Flight III DDG 51 procurement to help fund other shipbuilding priorities, according to Adm Caudle. “Everything we do in the budget is trying to [strike] a balance to get more capacity,” he said. “There are tradeoffs that are made to get that balance.”