i Pentagon may sink plans for destroyer scheduled for BIW
Pentagon may sink plans for destroyer scheduled for BIW
BY DIETER BRADBURY Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 03/19/2009

BY DIETER BRADBURY

Portland Press Herald

A new generation of Navy destroyers that Bath Iron Works hoped would support thousands of jobs may be abandoned under the budget Defense Secretary Robert Gates will submit in April.

That's the opinion of defense industry analysts who are familiar with the DDG-1000, a Cold War-era design with a price tag estimated at more than $3 billion each.

The Navy has commissioned three of the ships, including two from BIW, but the 14,000-ton vessel doesn't fit well in a fleet aimed at terrorism and shallow-water conflicts.

Although Gates hasn't announced his budget yet, members of Congress from Maine and other New England states are already applying pressure to protect defense industry jobs in a recession.

To stabilize the work force at BIW, which employs about 5,700 people, Gates may be urged to order more ships in the smaller DDG-51 class. The shipyard has been building these smaller destroyers, which cost about $1 billion each, for nearly 25 years.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday it's important that Navy decisions don't interrupt the flow of production at the shipyard or result in layoffs at a time of economic recession.

"My goals are to meet the Navy's requirements, to make sure that the Navy's budget is not sacrificed to meet other demands for spending - which is what I fear is happening in the administration's budget deliberations - and to maintain a strong industrial base," she said.

Stability at BIW is important not just to the shipyard, but also to many smaller Maine businesses that provide goods and services to the yard, said U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

"Each of these firms is key to supporting the armed services and each is an important part of the Maine economy," Snowe said.

U.S. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said she wants to hear Navy and Pentagon officials explain their needs in an upcoming committee hearing.

"My goal is to hear more about what their interest is likely to be," she said, "but the number one thing is that the ships be built in Bath."

President Obama called for a 4 percent increase in base military spending in his $534 billion defense budget. He requested another $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the government should cut spending on unnecessary weapons systems.

The Defense Department will not release details of the budget, and Gates has required top advisors to sign statements promising not to disclose information on weapons evaluations.

Industry analysts say the short list of major weapons likely to be cancelled includes the Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter; the Army's Future Combat Systems, a group of manned and unmanned systems to replace certain tanks and infantry vehicles; and the Navy destroyer.

"The overarching reason is that the Navy's shipbuilding plan is in total disarray, and it has been in disarray for some time now," said Travis Sharp, at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

"I think the Navy and the Air Force have both had a lot of trouble trying to determine what their role is going to be in U.S. strategy when we're fighting in places like Iraq or Afghanistan," he said.

Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, said the DDG-1000 was designed to be a land-attack destroyer that would support Marines going ashore, and it lacks adequate missile defenses.

"The Navy doesn't want the ship anymore because the threat has changed in a way that makes it undesirable," Thompson said.

As many as 24 of the new DDG-1000 ships were envisioned when the program began, but that figure had been trimmed to seven by 2005.

In 2006, the Navy awarded shared design and construction contracts for the first two ships to BIW and its competitor in Pascagoula Miss., Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.

But last summer, top Navy officials announced plans to scrap the destroyer program, primarily because of its high cost, which prompted opposition in Congress, especially the House.

After the cancellation plan triggered an uproar in the New England delegation to Congress, the Navy reconsidered and ordered a third ship from BIW. The Pentagon provided partial funding of $1.5 billion and told the Navy to include the remaining costs in its forthcoming budget.

The Pentagon also provided $2.2 billion to restart production of the smaller, DDG-51 destroyer.

BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini said workers began building the first DDG-1000 on Feb. 11 and expected to deliver the ship to the Navy in 2013. He said the shipyard was prepared to build whatever ships the Navy orders.

"We're not going to speculate one way or the other with how that is going to come out," he said.

Collins said she requested a "highly classified intelligence briefing" last year to hear Navy officials explain their military needs and why they felt the DDG-1000 was no longer necessary.

"I did not see or hear anything in that briefing that would lead me to believe we need to abandon the DDG-1000," she said. "This seemed to be a decision that was driven more by costs than by military requirements."

Collins said she would not oppose Navy efforts to restart production of the DDG-51 destroyer, as long as there was no gap in work for BIW employees. She noted that the DDG-51 has a much smaller crew than the new destroyer.

"Since people are expensive, that really matters," Collins said.

DeMartini, the BIW spokesman, said the company has built 34 DDG-51 ships since the first contract was awarded in 1985. It has four in production now, the last of which will be delivered in 2011.

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