Connecticut lawmakers offer defense of New London base

Connecticut lawmakers have only two weeks to persuade the independent commission evaluating the Pentagon's base-closure recommendations to save the massive New London Submarine Base and more than 8,500 jobs in the state.

Their strategy, as the base-closure process winds down, is to argue that the Pentagon dramatically overestimated cost savings for shutting the installation and relocating its assets.

When Pentagon officials announced their recommendation to close the installation and move its assets to bases in Georgia and Virginia, they projected $1.6 billion in savings in the next 20 years.

But an analysis compiled by the team working to save the base contends the closure would cost $1 billion in the next two decades, said a congressional source.

The analysis contends the Pentagon low-balled one-time construction costs to relocate the New London submarine school and the base's subs by at least $269 million. The Connecticut cost figures also note that the Pentagon overestimated personnel savings by $84 million a year, largely because the department's analysis did not take into account a workforce reduction at the base by more than 200 positions since 2003, with additional cuts planned through 2011. Those cuts have saved the Navy $19 million, the source said.

The Connecticut analysis also said the Pentagon failed to account for $31 million for one-time moving costs and another $42 million needed annually for "unique" costs. The analysis was presented at a meeting with Base Closure and Realignment Commission staffers last week.

Over the last several months, Navy officials have stuck by the recommendation to close New London, stating that it makes economic and strategic sense to consolidate the Navy's East Coast underwater assets at Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia and Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia.

The service has cut its submarine fleet from 100 several years ago to about 50 Tuesday, with more reductions planned. Navy officers have said they had considered, among other options, moving the submarines stationed at Norfolk to Kings Bay and New London. That move, however, would save little money at Norfolk, already home to 78 ships and 133 aircraft. The commission will take up its recommendations later this month, with their base-closure list due to the White House by Sept. 8.