THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
In a post-Cold War environment, fewer new submarines are going to be required. Will two nuclear-capable shipyards be required - one in Groton, Conn., and one in Newport News?
In the private sector, they'd go head to head and the best yard would win. Since Electric Boat in Groton is dependent on submarines, losing the Pentagon's business would mean going out of business. That's harsh, but economic realities often are.
However, something more than economics may influence who is chosen to build the next generation of subs. Political realities. President Clinton ran on a promise to keep the Seawolf sub alive and the Groton yard with it. He, incidentally, carried Connecticut in 1992.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich has recently weighed in with a promise to try to find a way to keep both yards in operation. Various motives have been ascribed to him. He may want to please key Republican allies in the Nutmeg state or chip away at Clinton's electoral base. Or he may just believe the nation would be better off with two nuclear shipyards. But is such redundancy compatible with responsible budgeting?
Several solutions are now proposed. One would employ so-called incremental funding. Instead of paying for one such project at a time, the same money could be spread among several ongoing jobs. But the Navy has traditionally avoided a mortgaged future. Another proposal would drop plans for the final Seawolf and award Groton, without competition, the contract for a prototype of a new submarine class.
The trouble with all two-yard solutions is they tend to maintain overcapacity and may even produce unwanted submarines. They make less sense for national defense, for taxpayers and for the cause of balanced budgets than they do for politicians out to please constituents. But that's a luxury we can no longer afford.
In a time of lean defense and intense budgetary pressures, we need to buy only the defense we need and at a price we can afford without political considerations clouding the issue.
Of course, it's easy to be high-minded about letting the chips fall where they may when the chips are likely to fall Newport News' way. As the nation's premier nuclear yard, with both carrier and submarine capability, a purely rational one-yard decision would favor it overwhelmingly. But isn't rationally the way such decisions are supposed to be made? by CNB