THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504010226
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
It will complete an awesome line of warships, able to torpedo enemies at sea, dispatch missiles to targets hundreds of miles inland, mine harbors, gather intelligence - all without being detected by its adversaries.
And when it's christened at 7 tonight in Newport News, the nuclear-powered attack submarine Cheyenne will be sailing fast toward obsolescence.
``Cheyenne's a wonderful ship,'' said Rear Adm. Dennis Jones, the Navy's chief of submarine warfare, recalling his days as skipper of an earlier sub in the Los Angeles class.
``But you know, everything in its time.''
Even as the Navy prepares to take delivery of the Cheyenne, potentially the last sub to be built at Newport News Shipbuilding, U.S. and Russian sub designers and builders are working on new generations of stealthier, deadlier boats.
``To a submariner, quietness is life,'' Jones said. ``If I can hear the other fellow further than he can hear me, then I can control the situation and - heaven forbid we ever have to fight - I can get into position and shoot before he knows I'm there.''
The continued competition is occurring despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The United States and Russia are officially friends and are dismantling much of their nuclear arsenals. But when it comes to submarines, the arms race continues.
``We should worry about the other person's ability . . .,'' Jones said. ``I don't even know what his intent is, and right now I don't care. I care what his capability is. And right now it is good and it is increasing.''
Jones held his thumb and forefinger a few millimeters apart to illustrate the ``acoustic advantage'' that, he said, top U.S. ships like the Cheyenne now have over the best Russian boats. Because the hulls are essentially equally quiet, the American edge is based on superior sailors and better sonars, he suggested.
Designing and building quieter boats takes years, but ``electronics move very quickly,'' Jones said. ``Today, we are better. But as you know, if you buy a computer at home, every three to 18 months, the computer's out of date, the electronics are out of date. The concern here is - their people will never be better - but . . . they, whoever they are, could upgrade their electronics.''
Indeed, advanced boats in Russia's Akula class already are as quiet and under some conditions quieter than America's best subs, Navy Secretary John H. Dalton asserted in a speech last week. The Russians intend to turn out about one of those extra-quiet boats each year, Dalton added, while they work on an even stealthier design.
In a 1993 speech, Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said, ``A nuclear submarine fleet is the future of the armed forces. The number of tanks and guns will be reduced, as well as the infantry. But a modern Navy is a totally different thing.''
Reflecting such thinking, the Russians ``have essentially abandoned the rest of their navy and put all their efforts in the design and building of new and very capable submarines,'' said retired Vice Adm. Bernard Kauderer, a former submariner.
The United States, meanwhile, is building two subs in the new Seawolf class that the Navy says will be quieter than the Akula. The Clinton administration wants $1.5 billion next year to finish a third Seawolf and plans to begin building an equally quiet, but smaller and cheaper, new attack sub beginning in 1998.
While the United States and Russia are the leaders in stealth, other nations also are acquiring subs. The Navy reported in January that 44 countries now have a total of about 600 submarines. North Korea has 35, China 37. Iran's radical Islamic government has purchased two aging diesel subs from Russia and is to take delivery on another this year.
``Submarines are proliferating through the rest of the world at a horrendous rate,'' said Kauderer. ``It's become the weapons system of choice. And some very fine, high-performance submarines are being produced and sold to Third World nations. It'll be a rare nation that doesn't have a competent, capable submarine force in the future.''
Such threats add urgency to the administration's, and the Navy's, pleas that the United States develop new subs even as it retires some ships in the Los Angeles class years before the end of their useful lives.
But the new U.S. subs, particularly the third Seawolf, are under attack in Congress, among some independent analysts and even by some ex-submariners. The critics charge, and the Navy essentially concedes, that the last Seawolf costs too much and is not a military necessity.
Conceived when the Navy was preparing to fight a robust Soviet fleet in the open ocean, the Seawolf is bigger than Los Angeles-class subs like the Cheyenne. Critics suggest, but Jones strongly denies, that that makes it less maneuverable in the shallow coastal waters where subs now are needed.
Dalton acknowledged in an interview that the third Seawolf essentially is needed to give its builder, the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics of Groton, Conn., enough work to stay in business until construction of the new attack submarine can begin in 1998.
Newport News Shipbuilding officials asserted last month that their yard could take over all submarine work, saving the Navy more than $2 billion in the bargain. They've promised to provide documentation for that claim by April 15.
``I guess if it were persuasive, we would certainly consider it,'' Dalton said of the company's calculations. But he said the Navy believes ``we need two nuclear-capable shipyards,'' even if it costs a bit more to maintain them, as a hedge against an industrial accident or natural disaster that could shut down or cripple one yard.
Dalton also noted that the Navy already has spent about $900 million on the third Seawolf's nuclear reactor. Lawsuits and other expenses associated with trying to stop the program after two boats could easily total more than the $1.5 billion needed to finish construction, he argued.
Such calculations don't wash with critics of the Seawolf.
``The estimated total (Seawolf) program cost already exceeds $11 billion," U.S. Sen. John McCain complained in a letter to the Navy early this year. ``While the submarine is undeniably a technological marvel, it is nevertheless a relic of the Cold War and an unnecessary luxury in this time of severe budget constraints.''
McCain, an Arizona Republican, flew Navy jets during the Vietnam War and is the son of a submariner.
But McCain's often-expressed affection for the sea service has not kept him from arguing that the third Seawolf ought to be canceled and the money it would cost plowed into other defense programs.
Jim Bush, a retired Navy captain who commanded the submarine Simon Bolivar from 1967 to 1970, argues that with the 62-boat Los Angeles class, the U.S. already has enough submarines for the next 20 years.
Ships in the line that will end with the Cheyenne are ``the best in the world,'' Bush said.
``I don't care what the Navy tries to say.''
Bush, who follows submarine issues as deputy director of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said that if new subs are needed, the Navy ought to consider making some of them diesel-powered. Though slower than nuclear subs and unable to stay underwater for long periods, the diesel boats are cheaper, simpler and quicker to build.
Even Kauderer, who as deputy director of the Naval Submarine League is an unabashed Seawolf booster, acknowledged that improvements in the design of some diesel subs have made them ``sort of a poor man's nuclear sub.''
The improved diesels can remain submerged for 10 to 20 days, he said - far less than nuclear subs but enough for them to stalk targets without being detected or ``to go sit on the bottom for a long time and wait for a target to go by.''
Still, Kauderer argues that diesel subs ``don't have a mission in our Navy. Those boats are most effective at coastal defense, not the foreign power protection that is the U.S. Navy's speciality,'' he said.
``We need the speed, the quiet speed of a nuclear submarine, to get to the field of battle.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page A4 of The Virginian-Pilot for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: LAST OF ITS CLASS
Even as the Navy prepares to take delivery of the Cheyenne,
potentially the last sub to be built at Newport News Shipbuilding,
U.S. and Russian designers are working on new generations of
stealthier, deadlier boats.
[Color Photo]
BILL TIERNAN
Staff
The Cheyenne, shown from the stern with its propeller covered, is
the 62nd sub of its class and the 29th built at Newport News.
Shipyard worker Cassandra Whitehead puts the final stitches in a
covering over the bottle-breaker on the bow of the Cheyenne.
CHEYENNE CHRISTENING
The christening of the last Los Angeles-class submarine, the
Cheyenne, complete with fireworks and a laser show, is scheduled for
7 tonight at Newport News Shipbuilding. Gates open at 6 p.m., and
attendance will be limited to 10,000. U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a
Wyoming Republican, is the speaker. To reach the shipyard, take
Interstate 664 to Exit 5 and Warwick Boulevard in Newport News.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY SUBMARINE by CNB