The president's current plan to build just one new Virginia-class submarine per year through 2012 ignores the Navy's warning that the United States should have no fewer than 48
On Jan. 20, 2001, the day President George Bush was sworn into office, the United States Navy consisted of 315 ships. Despite the president's professed support for a strong national defense, by September 2006 that fleet had fallen in size to 276, driven by anemic shipbuilding budgets in that timeframe. This past January, the president submitted a budget to Congress that continues this decline with a proposed seven new ships to be built in 2008. Given the shelf life of an average ship as 30 years, simple math demonstrates that his policies will result in a U.S. Navy with a total fleet size of 210 ships in a short period of time.
It may be that some observers and military planners support this policy and the resulting effect it will have on American national security and our shipbuilding industrial base. However, the downward trend of the Navy is not happening in the context of a real debate about maritime security threats now and in the future, but rather it is happening as a consequence of the expanding, voracious demands of the war in Iraq.
To put this into perspective, the newest class of attack submarines, the Virginia program built in Connecticut, was scheduled to be produced at a modest two-sub-a-year clip starting in 2002 at a cost of $2.5 billion per submarine. That schedule has been pushed back over and over again to 2012, by the Pentagon and the last few Congresses despite the progress sub manufacturers have made in reducing the cost per boat. This has occurred at the same time we are spending $9 billion a month in Iraq and at the same time the Chinese Navy is producing 2.5 submarines per year.
Retirement Takes Its Toll
During the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, the United States Navy was building up to five new submarines per year. Obviously, the maritime threat was vastly different in that era and the goal was to have a fleet of 100 submarines. It is important to note that our present fleet of 52 submarines is a holdover from that time.
Just as rapidly as the Los Angeles-class submarines of that era were built during the 1980s, so too will be the rapid rate at which they will be retired in the next decade. That is when the real impact of the president's shipbuilding budgets from 2001 to the present will emerge in the form of a shrunken Navy.
The Navy's official position is that a fleet of fewer than 48 submarines will put our nation at risk as other nations such as China are rapidly accelerating their submarine programs.
A Nation Left Vulnerable
The president's current plan to build just one new Virginia-class submarine per year through 2012 ignores the Navy's warning that the United States should have no fewer than 48, since the president's plan results in a dip far below that number, to 40 submarines for an extended period of time, leaving our nation's security quite vulnerable.
In recent weeks I have been pushing to increase the Navy's Virginia program to two a year, as was originally planned in 2002. Along with Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, and Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., we met with the workers and management of Electric Boat in Groton to see the precarious state of our shipbuilding industrial base.
What we saw was that the president's neglect of our naval force not only jeopardizes America's status as a premier maritime power, but also has eroded the shipbuilding work force of this nation that is holding on by its fingernails.
Over the last two years, about 2,000 workers have lost their jobs at Groton's Electric Boat facility due to the anemic one-sub-a-year building program. Given the skills required for submarine production, these jobs are not easy to replicate. As an admiral recently stated to me, the unique team of designers and builders have a set of skills that exceed those of the scientists and engineers that make up our space program. They are able to create a vessel that keeps 150 sailors alive for up to 120 days at a time in conditions that otherwise would not support human life.
After our tour, Rep. Murtha powerfully made the point that the draining costs of the war in Iraq have an impact on our nation's domestic needs and on our defense infrastructure. Make no mistake about it — the Bush budget and his war policies will jeopardize further losses to a uniquely skilled work force that our national security infrastructure will not be able to reconstitute overnight.
This past week the House of Representatives approved a $588 million investment in the initial components of an additional Virginia-class nuclear submarine, which is what I have advocated for in Congress since I was first sworn into office. This is a good first step toward developing a more robust submarine force and funding two submarines per year. This summer, the House will be asked to consider funding last week's authorization, for which I will continue to fight. We must reverse the trend of a diminished naval force.
Shrinking Submarine Force Tied To High Cost Of Iraq War
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