THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407130386
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The Pentagon agreed Tuesday to review a Navy policy that one senator charged will waste more than $100 million next year on unneeded guidance systems for submarine-launched missiles.
Prodded by Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., Defense Secretary William Perry said he would reconsider the Navy's request for an additional 30 Mark-6 systems for the Trident II missiles. Bumpers contends the Navy needs only 14 of the systems, each valued at $6.6 million, in 1995.
Each of the Navy's Trident subs carries 24 missiles and 30 of the guidance systems, which steer the rockets to their targets. The Mark-6s can be tested while the subs are under way and defective units replaced by the backups. The Navy says it must build such redundancy into weapons systems to assure that every weapon deployed can be used.
But Bumpers said that in 658 patrols over the past 20 years, no sub has ever used more than four of the spare Mark-6s aboard. And four spares were needed in only one case, he said.
``This is redundancy carried to ridiculous extremes, it seems to me,'' he told Perry.
Bumpers said purchasing only 14 Mark-6s this year would save $106 million. And an as-yet-unpublished study by the General Accounting Office, he added, concludes that the result would be just a 0.6 percent drop in the Navy's readiness.
Perry hinted that if the GAO's figures stand up to a review in the Pentagon he might act to reduce the number of extra Mark-6s aboard each sub or the stockpile of 120 spares the Navy maintains ashore.
Perry's testimony came as the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee began formal consideration of the $244 billion Pentagon spending bill passed last month by the House. A committee vote is expected later this month, with floor action early in August.
The Senate already has passed a 1995 defense authorization bill, endorsing a 2.6 percent pay raise for service members, continued development of the controversial Air Force C-17 transport plane and construction of a new aircraft carrier at Newport News Shipbuilding, among other programs. The appropriations bill would provide the funds for those programs.
Much of Tuesday's hearing revolved around questions of the military's readiness to go to war should the need arise.
Perry came close to conceding that the Pentagon lacks the muscle now to fight the two simultaneous regional conflicts contemplated in last fall's ``bottom-up review'' of U.S. forces and needs.
The review was predicated on the notion that America should be ready to fight regional wars in Korea and the Middle East at the same time, or nearly so. Perry said Iran and Iraq, the two major U.S. antagonists in the Middle East, are unable now to launch a war, giving the U.S. military a few years to bring on the new weapons it needs. by CNB