THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250530
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A House committee gave Newport News Shipbuilding an important early victory late Wednesday in its battle for the Navy's future submarine business.
As an all-day scramble by New Englanders for votes to stop it fizzled, the House National Security Committee endorsed a bill to scrap the Navy's Seawolf submarine program after two boats. The proposal also would permit Newport News to compete for the right to build subs in a new line that would begin after the turn of the century.
In between, Electric Boat would be the lead contractor on a unique, super-quiet sub that could serve as a prototype for the new class. Newport News would have a role, not yet fully clear, in that ship's design.
Even members who supported it Wednesday suggested that the committee plan is unlikely to be reflected in the final defense bill Congress will pass in September.
``It will be something different at the end of the day,'' said Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, a senior committee Republican who lives in Newport News and is perhaps the Hampton Roads shipbuilder's most prominent congressional advocate.
The committee action puts in doubt the future of Electric Boat, a General Dynamics subsidiary that is the Navy's preferred submarine contractor. Top executives of that firm have told Congressional committees this spring that completion of a third Seawolf and a guarantee that Electric Boat will get subsequent sub contracts are vital to the Groton, Conn. yard's survival.
After the vote, New England lawmakers promised renewed efforts on the House floor and in the Senate to preserve the third Seawolf. ``If we don't have Seawolf, we don't compete'' for future subs, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.
About 15,000 New Englanders work at Electric Boat. DeLauro and other congressmen representing them huddled outside the committee room Wednesday night in a frantic effort to draft an amendment that would save the third Seawolf but ended up by essentially conceding they couldn't muster the votes.
Their effort was stymied by Bateman, who had prepared an amendment of his own to require immediate competition between the two yards on any subs built after the last Seawolf. That plan, which would remove Electric Boat's edge on the prototype for the new class, would easily have passed the Republican controlled committee, Bateman asserted.
Newport News claims it could undercut Electric Boat's price on the complete line of 30 post-Seawolf subs by about $10 billion. The Navy says any savings would be far smaller.
The Navy has asked for $1.5 billion to permit Electric Boat to finish the third Seawolf and another $700 million to let the yard proceed with design and other early development of the new submarine line. Newport News, under the service's plan, would be held in reserve as a sub contractor, perhaps allowed to bid on some new subs in the next decade.
Newport News says it will go out of the submarine business if it doesn't get work before then. It also builds commercial ships and aircraft carriers.
The plan before the committee Wednesday night would give Electric Boat about $1.5 billion for enhancements to the Connecticut, the second sub in the Seawolf class, and for early work on the prototype for a subsequent sub line. It also would provide about $500 million in expenses related to canceling the last Seawolf.
Newport News, in addition to the promise of competition on subs to be built after the prototype, would get $160 million to help its engineers get up to speed on Electric Boat's design for a new sub and develop innovations of its own for that boat.
Critics complained that the plan, drafted principally by Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, saves no money and leaves the Navy with one fewer sub than it says it needs. Hunter on Tuesday steered the plan through a subcommittee he heads, setting the stage for Wednesday's full committee debate.
The Navy and Electric Boat, apparently taken by surprise when Hunter unveiled the plan on Tuesday, went right to the top in a frenetic attempt to overturn it.
Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton and Adm. Mike Boorda, the chief of naval operations, met Tuesday night with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Hunter.
Also at that private session in Gingrich's office, legislative and military sources confirmed, was Electric Boat President James E. Turner Jr. Newport News representatives were not invited.
At the meeting, according to the sources, Gingrich restated his personal support for the third Seawolf and for preserving Electric Boat. It was less clear whether that statement extended to a commitment to fight for the Seawolf on the House floor.
KEYWORDS: NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING SUBMARINE NAVY CONTRACT by CNB