Senator changes position on reducing Navy's aircraft carrier fleet

Lawmakers opposed to the Navy's plans to trim the aircraft carrier fleet have lost their most influential supporter and, potentially, their campaign to delay retirement of a Florida-based carrier.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., has introduced legislation repealing language he helped add to the fiscal 2006 defense authorization bill that barred the Navy from moving forward with plans to retire the USS John F. Kennedy and reduce its carrier fleet to 11 ships.

Warner, a former Navy secretary, has explained his abrupt change of position by saying the money needed to overhaul the Kennedy would be better spent growing the size of the overall Navy fleet from 281 to 313 ships. Warner based his decision largely on the Pentagon's recent Quadrennial Defense Review, which affirmed a need for only 11 carriers in the foreseeable future.

"Carefully considering this conclusion, we must weigh the risk of reducing the naval force from 12 to 11 aircraft carriers against the risk of failing to modernize the naval force," Warner said Thursday in a Senate floor speech that drew no immediate publicity. The Navy originally planned to overhaul the Kennedy, based at Florida's Mayport Naval Station, in Warner's home state of Virginia.

As part of broader budget-cutting effort, the Pentagon recommended foregoing overhauls on the Kennedy in its fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007 budget requests. A recent Navy analysis concluded the Kennedy, which deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2004, required $2 billion over the next five years for extensive overhauls, including major repairs to the flight deck, a Navy official said Tuesday.

The Navy official could not comment on how the service would rather use that money but acknowledged that the Navy is "operating in a time where every dollar counts."

Warner's bill has garnered the support of fellow Virginia Republicans, including Rep. Jo Ann Davis, co-leader of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus. Davis says she still sees the need for 12 carriers, but recognizes the Navy needs funds to meet the ambitious shipbuilding goals outlined by Chief of Naval Operations Michael Mullen.

"I believe to meet this goal, we must financially plan for the future," Davis said in a statement. "This means investing in the future. Restoring the USS Kennedy to operational status takes away from this goal."

Meanwhile, Rep. Thelma Drake, R-Va., said Mullen had assured her the Navy can meet all operational requirements with 11 carriers. But Florida lawmakers are not convinced. Last week, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., both called for immediate repairs to the Kennedy.

"And while the Kennedy is under repair, we need to move a nuclear-powered ship from Norfolk to Mayport as soon as possible -- so all our other carriers aren't sitting ducks in one port," said Nelson.

The Florida delegation has the backing of the American Shipbuilding Association, which foresees a potential domino effect on the struggling shipbuilding industry if Congress allows the Navy to forego the overhaul and cut the fleet.

"Force structure does determine what the building requirements are for industry, and also the maintenance requirements," said Cindy Brown, the association's president. By retiring the Kennedy now -- rather than in 2018 as initially planned -- the Navy likely will see its fleet briefly dip to 10 carriers in the next decade after it retires another ship and waits for the delayed CVN-21 nuclear-powered carrier to complete production.