THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170179
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Key congressmen and senators have reached an apparent agreement on a long-term plan for Navy submarine construction, including provisions that would guarantee two new sub contracts to Newport News Shipbuilding.
The deal worked out by House and Senate Republicans, including Virginia Sen. John W. Warner and Rep. Herbert H. Bateman of Newport News, calls for Newport News to begin work on one sub in 1999 and a second two years later.
The ships would be the second and fourth in a new class of subs the Navy says are needed to ensure that the United States has the world's quietest and deadliest fleet of undersea boats.
The first and third ships in the new sub class would be built by Newport News' only sub-building rival, Electric Boat of Groton, Conn. Sometime after work begins on the first four ships, the yards would begin to compete for subsequent contracts.
The deal assures ``an absolute equal balance'' between the yards, Warner asserted Thursday. An earlier compromise he brokered guaranteed each yard only one ship in the new class before the onset of competition.
Bateman said Thursday that he suggested the two-subs-per-yard arrangement to stimulate both builders to explore new technologies and incorporate them into the new subs. Each builder would be required to share advances with its rival so that those improvements could be incorporated into each new ship.
The suggestion was the key to breaking a House-Senate impasse, Bateman said. Until it surfaced last week, ``people were really (just) talking at one another,'' he said.
Newport News is close to finishing work on the last submarine it has under contract, the Cheyenne. That ship was christened last spring. Yard officials have warned that unless they get more work soon they will have to abandon the sub business.
``We're very satisfied'' with the new sub plan, Jerri Dickseski, a Newport News spokeswoman, said Thursday. The yard waged an expensive and high-profile lobbying campaign last spring in support of immediate competition with Electric Boat. Executives said they could save the Navy several billion dollars on the first few ships in the new class.
The Navy has indicated it prefers subs built at Electric Boat but wants to keep Newport News in the business as well. The Connecticut yard, part of defense megacontractor General Dynamics, builds only subs; Newport News is the Navy's sole supplier of aircraft carriers.
The submarine plan is part of a defense authorization bill that has been under negotiation for weeks. The bill provides no money - separate appropriations bills are needed to do that - but sets policies for the Defense Department and conditions under which money can be spent.
In separate action Thursday, the House and Senate passed a 1996 defense appropriations bill that includes $700 million for further work on the third and last ship in the Seawolf class of subs, already under construction at Electric Boat.
The first Seawolf was christened in June. The three ships are to be the world's quietiest, but at a cost of more than $2.5 billion each, they have proven unacceptably expensive to Congress. Ships in the new class will be smaller and cheaper than the Seawolfs; they Navy says they'll cost about $1.5 billion each.
That bill also provides $700 million for design work at Electric Boat on the first sub in the new class and $100 million for preliminary work at Newport News on the second ship in the class. by CNB