Navy fends off Hill pressure to accelerate sub purchases

Navy officials held firm Wednesday to a decision to buy only one submarine annually for the next several years, despite a strong reaction from lawmakers concerned that the limited procurement would exacerbate problems in the struggling shipbuilding industry.

During their annual budget presentation to the House Armed Services Committee, Navy leaders argued increasing submarine purchases in the short term would throw the service's carefully balanced shipbuilding plan off kilter, forcing substantial cuts elsewhere.

At more than $2 billion each, submarines are one of the priciest items on the Navy procurement menu. Current plans call for the service to increase buys to two subs a year in 2012 -- but not before then.

Chief of Naval Operations Michael Mullen, who has been pushing his ambitious shipbuilding agenda hard on Capitol Hill, warned a major divergence would cause the plan to "unravel." It also would deny the shipbuilding industry what it has been clamoring most for: stability and an end to erratic budgets.

But lawmakers with submarine interests in their districts countered the one-per-year schedule would force the industry to lay off hundreds of highly skilled submarine designers just as China emerges as a significant naval power.

Losing the domestic industrial base amounts to a "serious strategic liability ... at a time when others around the world are rapidly deploying and rapidly building" submarines, said Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn.

Simmons' district includes General Dynamics' Electric Boat operation, as well as the New London Submarine Base. A perennial election target for Democrats, Simmons successfully campaigned last year to save New London from closure, securing more than 4,000 jobs in eastern Connecticut.

The Navy "cannot just reconstitute [the industrial base] overnight," added Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. Electric Boat has a submarine outfitting facility in Quonset Point in Langevin's district.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter, who has been in office just two months, vowed to work with industry leaders to protect critical jobs.

But aside from economic concerns, Simmons argued that the Navy, which has been retiring older submarines, will soon have its fleet dip below the 48 subs deemed operationally necessary by the Pentagon's recent Quadrennial Defense Review.

"This isn't your fault, but it seems to me we need more subs," he said.

Navy officials acknowledged the temporary decline in the size of the sub fleet, but said it does not pose any immediate operational risk. "I accept that there is risk out there and clearly the task is how to manage that," Mullen said.

The submarine issue feeds into a growing financial debate this year between Congress and the Pentagon over whether the military's budget request adequately addresses and funds all of its operational needs.

Over the last several weeks, lawmakers have engaged Pentagon and service leaders over plans to cut personnel funding for the Army National Guard, retire the Air Force's venerable fleet of B-52 aircraft and end production of the C-17 cargo plane after the 180th aircraft rolls off production lines next year.

Last month, eight key Republican senators, along with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, called on Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., to restore $3.7 billion to the Defense Department budget to pay for several unfunded service priorities. That amount would bring the base defense budget to $443 billion -- the Bush administration's projected funding level for the department as of last spring.