THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 7, 1995 TAG: 9503070279
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Senior Navy leaders urged the base-closing commission Monday to preserve the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, N.H., because of what they said are its special capabilities to refuel the Navy's largest class of submarines.
But in interviews, a Norfolk-area union official and a Washington-based shipyard consultant argued that the refueling of Los Angeles-class subs could easily be shifted to Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
The shipyard, which has seen its work force cut by more than 3,000 in recent years, still has ``plenty of capacity,'' said Ron Ault, business representative for the International Association of Machinists in Norfolk.
``Our problem is just getting the people back to work,'' he said. Many highly skilled former employees have found other jobs, he suggested, and perhaps only some would return.
Navy Secretary John H. Dalton told the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission that the New Hampshire yard is the only Navy facility that meets all requirements for refueling the Los Angeles subs. If the yard were closed, the Navy also would have virtually no excess capacity in shipyards to deal with an emergency, Dalton said.
Navy figures indicate, however, that if the New Hampshire yard is saved, the service will have 37 percent more capacity than it needs in nuclear-capable ship repair facilities.
The Los Angeles submarines are the backbone of the nation's undersea fleet. A few remain in production, though the oldest ships in the class already have begun to be retired.
``The Navy doesn't really need to refuel these submarines,'' said James R. McCaul, a shipbuilding consultant who heads IMA Associates in Washington. ``If they need to do it, they could do it at Newport News (Shipbuilding).''
The privately owned Newport News yard is the nation's largest shipbuilder. It builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and has done some nuclear submarine construction for the Navy, though the service has decided to shift all future sub work to Electric Boat, a Connecticut yard.
Navy officials said they did not consider the capabilities of private yards in making their recommendations about closing and retaining public facilities.
McCaul said Navy officials ``should close Portsmouth (N.H.), and they know it.'' Any equipment unique to refueling the Los Angeles-class ships could easily be moved, he said.
A Navy spokesman acknowledged that Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., have facilities needed to refuel Los Angeles-class subs. But transferring all the work from New Hampshire to those yards would be ``inordinately expensive,'' he said.
Some critics have said that the New Hampshire yard is being preserved because of its location in the state that hosts the nation's first presidential primary. But those suggestions went largely unmentioned as the commission opened its formal review of the Navy's 1995 base proposals.
Dalton told Wendi L. Steele, a Republican member of the base-closing panel, that his decision about the yard was not influenced by President Clinton's prediction in January that the facility would survive. Clinton spoke during a swing through New Hampshire as the Navy was in the final stages of its base review process.
In recommending that the New Hampshire yard be retained, a Navy report cited uncertainties about the development of a new generation of attack subs. The service has just begun planning that boat; the report suggested that decisions about refueling the Los Angeles class depend in part on how fast the new subs are developed and how many are built.
In other testimony Monday, Dalton conceded that in Navy assessments of every shipyard's military value, the New Hampshire shipyard scored slightly lower than a California yard targeted for closure.
The relative rankings of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard and the New Hampshire yard make shutting the California facility hard to justify ``just on the numbers,'' said Alan J. Dixon, the base-closing commission's chairman.
But Dalton and Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, chief of naval operations, suggested that the Long Beach yard's inability to work on nuclear-powered ships was critical to the decision to recommend it for closure.
``These are not the same things,'' Boorda said of attempts to compare Long Beach with Portsmouth, N.H.
Dalton also defended his decision to spare several other Navy facilities in California on the grounds that the state has suffered serious economic setbacks because of past closure decisions.
Navy analysts recommended closing four California facilities, including a Fleet and Industrial Supply Center in Oakland that employs more than 3,000 people. Closing all four, plus the Long Beach shipyard, would have brought California's job losses through four base-closure rounds to more than 30,000, Dalton said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Navy Secretary John H. Dalton says the yard is the only one that can
handle the largest class of submarines.
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSURE AND REALIGNMENT COMMISSION BASE CLOSING U.S.
NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD by CNB