Weapon Systems
- Report
Acquisition Costs of the Navy’s Medium Landing Ship
CBO estimates that construction of 18 medium landing ships would cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion in 2024 dollars. CBO’s estimates range from two to roughly three times the Navy’s current estimates.
- Report
The Shipbuilding Composite Index and Its Rates of Change Compared With Economywide Inflation Rates
Between 1980 and 2022, the shipbuilding composite index grew an average of 1.2 percentage points faster per year than the GDP deflator did. Looking ahead, a gap of roughly 1 percentage point would be consistent with historical experience.
- Presentation
Perspectives on the Navy’s 2024 Shipbuilding Plan
Presentation by Eric J. Labs, an analyst in CBO’s National Security Division, at the Surface Navy Association’s 36th National Symposium.
- Presentation
The 2024 Outlook for Navy Shipbuilding: Familiar Plans and Higher Costs
Presentation by Eric J. Labs, an analyst in CBO’s National Security Division, at the Bank of America 2024 Defense Outlook and Commercial Aerospace Forum.
- Blog Post
CBO Releases an Updated Interactive Tool for Analyzing the Size and Cost of the U.S. Military
The enhanced tool lets users change the defense budget to see the possible effects on military forces, or add or subtract major units to see the effects on the budget, or explore a mix of those approaches. It includes a how-to-use tutorial.
- Interactive
CBO’s Interactive Force Structure Tool
This tool allows the user to see the effects on the Department of Defense’s total operation and support costs and on the size of the military of adding or subtracting tanks, ships, aircraft, and other units.
- Report
The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: Fiscal Year 2024 Update to Personnel Numbers and Costs
This spreadsheet provides the data that underlie CBO’s interactive force structure tool.
- Report
An Analysis of the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2024 Shipbuilding Plan
Under the three alternatives in the Navy’s 2024 plan, total shipbuilding costs would average about $34 billion to $36 billion per year (in 2023 dollars) through 2053, CBO estimates, as the Navy built a fleet of 319 to 367 battle force ships.
- Report
Long-Term Implications of the 2024 Future Years Defense Program
CBO analyzes the Department of Defense’s plans for 2024 through 2028 as presented in the 2024 Future Years Defense Program. Under those plans, CBO projects, defense costs would increase by 10 percent between 2028 and 2038.
- Blog Post
A Call for New Research in the Area of National Security
To enhance its work for the Congress, CBO is looking for new research on the implications of the military’s use of in-kind compensation, and on the causes and future evolution of sector-specific inflation.