THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940629 LENGTH:
Senator Feingold proposed that he and his colleagues amend the 1995 Defense Authorization Act, which earlier had successfully navigated the House of Representatives, to delay construction of CVN 76 until 2000. But the U.S. Navy - more to the point, the United States - would be courting trouble not to have that supercarrier to look forward to in this still-dangerous world.
{REST} Mr. Feingold thinks otherwise. On the Senate floor, he cited military analysts who say the nation could make do with fewer than the dozen supercarriers that the Navy says are essential if Americans are to be poised to fight and win two more or less simultaneous regional wars, each on the scale of the Persian Gulf conflict.
That's the U.S. armed forces' mission as defined by the Clinton administration's ``bottom-up review'' of what the United States must be prepared to do to defend its vital interests.
Virginia's two senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Chuck Robb, led the forces - a bipartisan coalition - that defeated the supercarrier's attackers 72-24. The victory all but assures that CVN-76 (the vessel's hull number) will rise at Newport News Shipbuilding, which is the only shipyard anywhere with the skills and other resources necessary to bring supercarriers into being.
Postponing CVN-76's construction until year 2000 would have severely impaired, if not wholly destroyed, that unique capacity. As matters stand, the sharp decline in Navy shipbuilding, ship-modernization and ship-repair demand already had injured the giant shipyard, as well as other shipyards here and elsewhere, and the Hampton Roads economy. Newport News Shipbuilding plans to winnow its work force from 21,000 to 14,000 and had announced that it would be compelled to shrink it to 10,000 if CVN-76 were sunk.
The project sails on. For this considerable blessing, much thanks.
CVN-76 - at $3.6 billion the heftiest line item in President Clinton's $263 billion 1995 defense budget - looks like a fat target for critics of Pentagon spending. But the projected supercarrier is not as vulnerable as it might have appeared to some in the tricky straits of the U.S. Senate. Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin learned as much last week when he tried to torpedo the yet-to-be-named warship.
Senator Feingold proposed that he and his colleagues amend the 1995 Defense Authorization Act, which earlier had successfully navigated the House of Representatives, to delay construction of CVN 76 until 2000. But the U.S. Navy - more to the point, the United States - would be courting trouble not to have that supercarrier to look forward to in this still-dangerous world.
Mr. Feingold thinks otherwise. On the Senate floor, he cited military analysts who say the nation could make do with fewer than the dozen supercarriers that the Navy says are essential if Americans are to be poised to fight and win two more or less simultaneous regional wars, each on the scale of the Persian Gulf conflict.
That's the U.S. armed forces' mission as defined by the Clinton administration's ``bottom-up review'' of what the United States must be prepared to do to defend its vital interests.
Virginia's two senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Chuck Robb, led the forces - a bipartisan coalition - that defeated the supercarrier's attackers 72-24. The victory all but assures that CVN-76 (the vessel's hull number) will rise at Newport News Shipbuilding, which is the only shipyard anywhere with the skills and other resources necessary to bring supercarriers into being.
Postponing CVN-76's construction until year 2000 would have severely impaired, if not wholly destroyed, that unique capacity. As matters stand, the sharp decline in Navy shipbuilding, ship-modernization and ship-repair demand already has injured the giant shipyard, as well as other shipyards here and elsewhere, and the Hampton Roads economy. Newport News Shipbuilding plans to winnow its work force from 21,000 to 14,000 and had announced that it would be compelled to shrink it to 10,000 if CVN-76 were sunk.
The project sails on. For this considerable blessing, much thanks. by CNB