The U.S. Navy included 14 Boeing Co F/A-18E/F Super Hornets valued at $1.5 billion and two Lockheed Martin Corp F-35C jets worth $270 million on a list of “unfunded priorities” that it prepared for Congress, according to U.S. defense officials.

The list, which often lays the groundwork for Congress to add funding to the official Pentagon budget request, also includes $433 million in the final third tranche of funding for a DDG-51 destroyer, said one of the sources.

The ship will be built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc and General Dynamics Corp.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus first disclosed the addition of the 14 Boeing jets to the Navy’s wish list for fiscal year 2017 during a hearing of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee on Tuesday, but did not include the associated funding level.

Mabus said the additional jets would be needed to maintain the Boeing production line if a big foreign order was not finalized. He did not mention the buying country.

The Navy had requested two F/A-18 jets in its FY 2017 budget, and said it planned to buy a larger number of jets in FY 2018 with a foreign order expected to fill the gap in 2017.

SOURCE REUTERS, Read more..