House Members Endorse Construction of Additional Virginia-Class Submarine
SUB HEARING
The New London Day
Renée Dudley
Boston University Washington News Service
8 March 2007
WASHINGTON – Members of a House Armed Services subcommittee Thursday urged the building of an additional Virginia-class submarine each year starting next year, saying the gap in production could lead to a breakdown in national defense.
The infrastructure for production is already in place in Groton, Electric Boat President John Casey testified before the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee. He said that building an additional submarine each year would help Electric Boat to further reduce costs.
President Bush’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2008 calls for the production of one Virginia-class submarine each year until 2012, when the Navy would increase production to two Virginia-class submarines a year.
At the current rate of procurement, given that ships currently in the fleet will continue to be decommissioned, the Navy will fall short of the size fleet recommended to maintain “acceptable risk” for national security by 2020, several witnesses said.
“Despite this increase [in 2012], the plan will leave the Navy short of its attack submarine force level requirement for 14 years… going through 2033,” Casey said.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), a member of the subcommittee, said he requested the hearing to examine the Navy’s fleet strength. The committee hearing is not about the sub force today, Courtney said. “It’s about the sub force we’ll have 10 or 15 years down the road.”
“Of course I would love to have the additional submarines,” the Navy’s commander of submarine forces, said, noting they would help mitigate the anticipated shortage starting in 2020. But Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly said he stands behind the Chief of Naval Operations 30-year shipbuilding plan. “It’s the most balanced plan for the nation,” Donnelly said.
However, even if Congress gave the Navy a check today for an additional submarine, the ship would not be ready for deployment for another nine years, Donnelly said. He said two years are needed to secure funding authorization; five years are needed for production; and an additional two years after that are needed for sea trials and other pre-deployment measures.
But Ron O’Rourke, senior naval analyst for the Congressional Research Service, testified that the first two years can be avoided, as was done in the 1980s for the commissioning of an aircraft carrier. “You can fund the entire cost of the ship up front and declare that to be the cost for procurement,” he said.
Casey agreed, repeating that Electric Boat could start building immediately, which would help the firm to further cut the costs of production and move closer to the targeted $2 billion price. “If you increase the volume, you can bring that price in earlier,” Casey said.
Mike Petters, president of the Northrup Grumman production facility in Newport News, Va., agreed. “The sooner we start producing two subs a year, the sooner we can save costs,” he said.
O’Rourke testified that the Navy estimates increased production could save an average of $185 million per boat.
Casey said it could also lead to more effective employment infrastructure.
“In the last 18 months, about 2,000 jobs have been lost at Electric Boat because of this production cycle,” Courtney said.
“Subs are not a Cold War relic,” Donnelly said. “They have been used extensively in the global war on terror.”
Courtney said there is support within the Armed Services Committee to increase shipbuilding, including the addition of another Virginia-class submarine.
“Under our current plan we are simply not constructing enough submarines today to meet the challenges of the future,” he said, citing a submarine buildup in China as a potential threat.
Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) agreed, announcing the support of the subcommittee for the procurement of an additional ship each year. “This subcommittee finds it troubling that the Navy’s inventory of fast-attack submarines drops below 48 in the year 2020,” he said.
“Decisions we make today will have an effect on the levels we have down the road,” Donnelly said. “We will be paying the price of a long period of time when we did not build subs [in the 1990s.]”
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