Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060612
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In a move that raises questions about the nation's industrial base and imperils the jobs of thousands of workers in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia, the Pentagon is expected to decide whether to build at two yards or one sometime this summer, according to Sen. John Warner, R-Va.
The Rhode Island and Connecticut House delegations, in a change in their lobbying strategy, urged the Navy Tuesday to choose a single submarine contractor. They said the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corp. was the obvious choice because it builds nothing but submarines.
Electric Boat makes submarine frames at Quonset Point, R.I., and assembles the billion-dollar vessels at Groton, Conn. General Dynamics is one of the largest private employers in the region.
The lone submarine competitor is the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Virginia's largest private employer. Newport News also builds surface ships for the Navy.
"Were the Navy to choose Newport News as the sole source for attack submarines, the valuable resources and unique expertise of Electric Boat would be lost forever," the lawmakers wrote Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett III. "Were Electric Boat chosen, Newport News would still maintain a sizable backlog of work on aircraft carriers."
Until now, the two delegations have opposed the idea of such a clear-cut decision because of the threat it poses to Connecticut. Without submarine contracts, Electric Boat would close. And because the Navy is proposing to build no more Trident nuclear submarines, the Groton yard is increasingly dependent on Seawolf work.
The letter from the New England lawmakers represents both a recognition that in lean times there won't be enough submarine construction to keep two yards open and a calculated risk that General Dynamics will win the contract war, said Rep. Sam Gejdenson, D-Conn., whose district includes Groton.
Warner, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and former Secretary of the Navy, has lobbied hard on behalf of Newport News. Warner met with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney on Monday to discuss the Bush administration's proposed defense budget.
The spending plan proposes building one Seawolf attack submarine per year for the next four years. In fiscal year 1996 the Navy would build two. The following year the allotment would fall back to a single submarine.
The Navy had hoped to build as many as four Seawolfs per year.
Warner said he asked Cheney whether the slower rate of Seawolf construction meant that one yard would do all the work.
"He indicated that the decision as to whether or not to maintain two yards or one yard in America's industrial base for new submarine construction is a very detailed process which is under way," Warner said.
For much of the 1980s the Pentagon deliberately split submarine work between Electric Boat and Newport News arguing that competition lowered costs. But with so few submarines being built, maintaining two submarine-building facilities could actually cost more, Gejdenson said.
A key argument for Warner is that the nation's industrial policy - the need to maintain manufacturing facilities - is as important a consideration as the cost of a single submarine. Warner said the nation should not give up one of only two subbuilding sites.
by CNB