THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290468
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Lawmakers held back $100 million of the $2.4 billion requested for a new aircraft carrier and warned the Navy to cut the cost of its new submarine program or risk losing it next year.
The action came as members of the defense appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate approved a spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Saturday.
Overall, the appropriations bill, which still must pass the House and Senate, makes many minor adjustments to President Clinton's $263 billion defense budget without jeopardizing any arms programs.
The committees granted $2.3 billion for the next aircraft carrier, being built by Tenneco Inc.'s Newport News Shipbuilding division. That's $100 million less than requested.
Here are other highlights of the plan approved:
New attack submarine
Lawmakers approved $236 million, $30 million less than requested for a sub to replace the Los Angeles-class fleet nearing the end of its construction. In its fiscal 1996 budget, the Navy will be seeking nearly $1.2 billion for the sub.
The first New Attack Submarines, scheduled to begin production in fiscal 1998, could cost $3.4 billion. The committee said that's more than the price of the Seawolf, a program the Navy curtailed because it was too expensive.
Navy officials say that once production begins in earnest, each submarine will cost about $1.5 billion, less than each Seawolf. The conferees doubt the Navy can achieve that cost goal.
General Dynamics' Electric Boat shipyard, based in Groton, Conn., has production of Trident nuclear-missile submarines and Seawolf attack subs keeping it busy until late this decade. If NAS production is significantly delayed, Electric Boat and its suppliers could have trouble surviving between the end of Seawolf production and the start of the New Attack Sub.
Army helicopters
In a concession to the Army and companies involved, the House and Senate conferees rejected Senate language that would have halted two programs - the Longbow radar upgrade to McDonnell Douglas Corp. Apache attack helicopters, and development of the Comanche scout-attack helicopter by a team of Boeing Co. and Sikorsky Aircraft.
B-2 bomber
The lawmakers set aside $125 million to sustain Northrop-Grumman Corp.'s B-2 production line in Pico Rivera, Calif., for another year, and ordered the Pentagon to submit a plan for future low-rate production of the B-2.
Other action:
Approved $2.7 billion the administration requested for three DDG-51 destroyers. That work is divided between privately-held Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine, and Litton Industries Inc.'s Ingalls Shipbuilding, based in Pascagoula, Miss.
Gave Lockheed Corp. $2.4 billion, about $100 million less than requested, for development of the F-22 fighter jet. Lockheed also gets $2.2 billion, about $200 million less than requested, for F-16 fighter production, and $616.3 million for 18 Trident II D-5 submarine-launched nuclear missiles.
Approved $2.2 billion for six McDonnell Douglas C-17 transport planes. That's $300 million less than requested. McDonnell Douglas also gets $934 million, about $100 million less than requested, for 24 F/A-18 C/D fighter jets, and $1.3 billion for development of the next-generation F/A-18, just about what Clinton requested.
Approved $467 million, $30 million less than the administration requested, for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell Helicopter-Textron and Boeing. The V-22, which takes off and lands like a helicopter yet flies like a jet, recently won Defense Acquisition Board approval for initial production. That Pentagon panel must approve all major weapons programs.
KEYWORDS: DEFENSE BUDGET by CNB