THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406240733
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940624 LENGTH: WASHINGTON
Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch said Thursday that the Navy should go ahead with development of the new attack submarine and consider building one per year beginning in the late 1990s.
{REST} In a memo to the top acquisition official at the Pentagon, Deutch said that a just-completed review has concluded that the submarine is the Navy's best option.
``A properly planned and executed nuclear attack submarine program is vital to our nation's security,'' Deutch wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Deutch is chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board, which makes recommendations on proposed weapons. His decision is a major hurdle for the submarine and a potential boon for the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corp. in Groton, Conn., where engineers are designing the new vessel. Virginia's Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. also may compete for the submarine work.
The administration supports the new submarine and is seeking $507 million in its defense budget request for development.
The attack submarine, sometimes known as the Centurion, is intended to be a cheaper alternative to the Seawolf attack submarine.
Both are nuclear-powered and designed to hunt enemy submarines, conduct surveillance and launch tactical strikes against shore targets.
But at $2.4 billion each, the Seawolf is the most costly submarine ever ordered by the Navy, so much so that the Pentagon is ordering only three over nearly a decade.
A final price for the new sub has not been advanced, but Navy officials have said they are aiming for under $2 billion.
As part of the ongoing debate on a $263.3 billion defense spending plan, the Senate on Thursday rejected 72-24 a proposal to delay construction of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier until 2000. Both the House and the Senate have now endorsed Clinton's request for the carrier.
The proposal by Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., would have cut funding for the carrier and left the Navy with 11 carriers, one less than the administration proposed.
Senators from Virginia, where the carrier would be built at the Newport News shipyard, led the opposition.
{KEYWORDS} SUBMARINE SHIPYARD by CNB