THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701040290
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 91 lines
The Navy, Newport News Shipbuilding and another major shipyard have agreed that they could save money on a new series of attack submarines by having the yards build different parts of each boat, sources familiar with the discussions say.
``There have been some initial discussions on a team approach (to sub building) that makes excellent sense,'' one knowledgeable source said this week.
Apparently under consideration is a program in which Newport News and Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., the Navy's other sub builder, would separately make sections of each submarine. The sections would be joined and the boat completed at one of the shipyards.
A defense official said the program would give Electric Boat the largest share of the Navy's sub work. Newport News would remain in the sub business and would retain the largest share of the Navy's overall shipbuilding budget through its work on aircraft carriers.
The discussions have included a meeting Friday between shipyard officials and Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's top weapons acquisition official.
The talks come as the Navy wrestles with ways to reduce its spending on the new attack sub, in hopes of devoting more cash to a new carrier and other shipbuilding.
In a program ordered last year by Congress, Newport News and Electric Boat each are to build two subs in a new class now being designed at the Connecticut yard.
When those four initial boats are done, around 2002, the Navy is to draw the best features from each into a final design that will be used for up to 26 more ships. The yards are to compete for contracts on those ships.
With each new sub costing about $1.5 billion, the 30-ship program could be worth $50 billion or more, including development and design expenses.
But the Navy, strapped for cash in the short term, may not save money under the plan: The General Accounting Office, Congress' fiscal watchdog, reported last month that competitive bidding might actually boost the cost of each ship by up to $300 million.
The GAO also warned that the Navy has conservatively estimated some of its expenses. The subs ``will use several new technologies and prototype systems. in performance problems, cost increases and delays in delivery. . . ''
Divvying up the work on each boat could save money by allowing Newport News and Electric Boat to develop particular specialties in the demanding world of submarine construction, said Andrew Krepinevich, director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based think tank. The nuclear-powered undersea boats are considered second only to the space shuttle in the complexity of their design and construction.
The team concept ``is more efficient,'' agreed Norman Polmar, a naval historian and independent analyst who has advised congressional committees on submarine programs, but he warned that ``it is not necessarily cheaper.''
Though the Navy has expressed a preference for Electric Boat-built subs, Polmar asserted that Newport News' subs historically have been cheaper to build and at least equal in quality to those turned out by the Connecticut yard.
Krepinevich said the Navy might save even more money by concentrating all submarine specialties at one yard, putting the second out of business. But, he added, that alternative could turn out to be politically unwise.
Though the Navy plans to average less than one sub purchase per year for the foreseeable future, its leaders have favored keeping both Newport News and Electric Boat in business as sub builders so that the pace of its acquisitions can be increased if necessary.
Electric Boat, which builds only subs, has said it needs at least one ship contract every two years to remain viable. Newport News, with its carrier business and some commercial contracts, is thought to need sub work less to survive but lobbied aggressively last year and in 1995 for a share of sub contracts equal to Electric Boat's.
Byron Callan, a prominent defense stock analyst, declined to speculate on how much a team approach might save per sub. But he said the arrangement also could save money by letting the Navy stretch out its sub purchases over a longer period while preserving both yards as sub builders.
Callan said innovations in computer-assisted design that have transformed U.S. manufacturing in recent years make such a modular approach to shipbuilding possible, even on a product as complex as a nuclear submarine. Newport News and another yard, Ingalls Shipbuilding of Mississippi, proposed a similar arrangement last year in what turned out to be a losing bid for a new generation of amphibious transport ships, the LPD-17.
Electric Boat already is planning to build the new subs in sections that could be mixed and matched at the time of final assembly, depending on the Navy's needs.
One sub might have an extra large compartment to carry special operations commandos and their equipment, for example, while in another otherwise identical boat that space could be devoted to additional equipment for electronic eavesdropping on opposing forces.
KEYWORDS: NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING AND DRYDOCK U.S. NAVY
ATTACK SUBMARINES