THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040456
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Senate gave a resounding vote of confidence Thursday to the Navy's plan to build a third Seawolf-class sub in Connecticut, and also signaled its desire to include Newport News Shipbuilding in a future sub program.
The 70-30 vote in favor of spending $1.5 billion to complete the last Seawolf - some $900 million already has been invested in the ship - increased the survival prospects of Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., the builder of the last sub.
But the Senate's obvious support of competition between Electric Boat and Newport News also probably means that a bitter battle between the shipyards will resume sometime early in the next decade.
The Senate is expected to vote today for a plan to divide the first ships in a new, smaller-and-cheaper-than-Seawolf class of subs between Electric Boat and Newport News. The Conn. yard would get the initial contract, beginning in 1998, but the second ship would go to Newport News and open competition between the yards would begin after the turn of the century.
Va. Sen. John W. Warner, the principal author of that plan, said the vote to preserve the Seawolf was a crucial first step in getting the Virginia yard in on the successor ship. New England senators who went along with his plan would have bolted had the Seawolf not been included, he suggested.
Electric Boat, which builds only submarines, has cast completion of the last Seawolf as critical to its survival. But critics, led by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, argue that the super-quiet sub is too expensive and unneeded in the post-Cold War world.
Including development and design costs, McCain put a $5 billion price tag on each of the first two Seawolfs and said the last sub will cost $4 billion. ``We really don't have the kind of funds that I believe would allow us to build this ship,'' he said.
The son of an admiral, and a former Navy pilot himself, McCain also mocked suggestions that the Seawolf is needed to counter a growing threat from Russian-built subs. By all accounts, much of the once-proud Russian fleet is ``rusting at the pier'' and sailors and soldiers are disspirited, underpaid and poorly housed, he said.
``Mr. President, give me a break! Fast, quiet submarines are not the priority of the Russians today,'' he said.
But Seawolf supporters, led by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., said the ship will fulfill a vital military mission. He warned of a growing submarine threat from a variety of nations. They cited a Navy study indicating that 44 countries now have subs in their fleets.
They also suggested that the cost of ending the Seawolf program would wipe out most or all money saved by not building the last sub. ``I don't think it'll save money. It'll put (shipbuilders) on the welfare rolls,'' asserted Sen. William S. Cohen, R-Maine.
The House already has voted in favor of competition on contracts for the post-Seawolf subs but wants to stop the Seawolf program after just two subs. The Senate's vote will send the issue into a House-Senate conference committee. by CNB