THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The Pentagon edged Tuesday toward endorsing a new Republican defense spending plan for 1996 but remained critical of the GOP's support for purchase of additional B-2 stealth bombers.
Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon sidestepped questions about whether the military leadership will recommend that President Clinton sign the bill, which could receive final congressional approval this week. Defense Secretary William J. Perry ``will make his recommendations to the president, not to the press through me,'' Bacon said.
The administration had suggested that earlier versions of the bill were likely to be vetoed.
The new GOP plan, hammered out Friday night, includes $100 million for preliminary work on an attack submarine that the military would actually purchase in 1999. That sub, which will be the second ship in a new generation of undersea boats, is expected to be constructed at Newport News Shipbuilding.
The new bill also includes $700 million to continue construction of the third and last ship in the Seawolf class of subs and the same amount to begin work on the first ship in the new generation. Both those ships are to be built at Electric Boat of Groton, Conn.
Newport News waged a high-profile campaign last spring for the right to compete for future sub contracts. The Navy had proposed that all sub work be directed to Electric Boat until at least sometime early in the next century; Newport News enjoys a similar monopoly on aircraft carrier construction.
A Newport News spokesman on Tuesday called the new plan ``a good beginning'' and said the yard looks forward ``to working with Congress and the Navy toward ensuring that two shipyards are able to continue'' in operation.
Bacon said the Pentagon is pleased that the GOP proposal includes funds to assist Russia and other nations in the former Soviet Union with guarding and disposing of their nuclear arsenals. He also praised the earmarking of $640 million for ``contingency'' operations, like the recent airstrikes against targets in Bosnia or the U.S. intervention last fall in Haiti.
In past budgets, the services have had to bear the expense of such operations out of their regular training and readiness accounts, then come to Congress after the fact for a special appropriation.
The Republicans' $243 billion plan is about $6 billion more than requested by the administration in February. Most of the additional money would accelerate weapons purchases the military planned to make in future years.
The additional 20 B-2s that the program contemplates are not part of the military's long-range plan, however. Bacon said the almost $500 million the Republicans want to spend to keep the B-2 production line open is ``a wedge'' for additional spending on the planes in future years.
Each B-2 costs about $2 billion.
``We think the billions of dollars this would cost would be better spent on buying more precision-guided munitions'' that would be delivered by other planes, Bacon said.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY BUDGET DEFENSE BUDGET by CNB