Marine Log - August 2008 - (Page 18) INSIDEWASHINGTON Navy cuts DDG 1000 program to two or does it? R eports that the Navy will limit production of its controversial $5 billion-percopy DDG 1000 to just two ships may prove premature. True, this is the recommendation of the House Armed Services Commitee (HASC). True, too, that various Congressional leaders have been told that this is the Navy’s plan by both Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Wi n t e r and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead. That decision has led to some back-biting between two Maine legislators. Republican Senator Susan Collins, a champion of the ship, called the decision to cut the program “a blow to Bath Iron Works.” Collins said the decision was made because HASC eliminated funding for the DDG-1000 program, which prompted a review within the Department of Defense on the future of the new destroyer program. Collins called the program “critical to BIW’s workforce.” U.S. Representative Tom Allen, a Democrat who gave up his seat on HASC, said, he’d been notified by Admiral Roughead, that after capping the DDG 1000 at just two vessels the Navy will reactivate the DDG 51 class with an initial commitment to order nine additional ships through Fiscal Year 2015. “The Navy’s decision to cap the DDG 1000 program and revive the DDG 51 program was related to the strategic limitations of the DDG 1000 in responding to future threats,” said Allen, adding that “Senator Collins’ suggestion that the decision was triggered by the House action is completely inconsistent with what Admiral Roughead said to me today about the strategic limitations of the DDG 1000.” At press time, the Navy had made no public pronouncement on the issue. That’s hardly surprising given the enormous amount of bombastic propaganda put out by the Navy over the years about the ship and its capabilities. Someone who seems to have bought into all that is Senator Edward Kennedy, who is Chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Maybe feeling upstaged by Gene Taylor, Chairman of the House Seapower panel, Senator Kennedy and several other senators (including Senator Collins) fired off a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, saying the DDG 1000 decision “requires a full review and analysis through the proper departmental channels and processes, including congressional oversight. To do otherwise would undermine the Navy’s shipbuilding plan in Congress and could result in the Congress providing no funding for new surface combatants in FY09.” 18 MARINE LOG AUGUST 2008 www.marinelog.com http://www.bainbridgeint.com http://www.bainbridgeint.com http://www.marinelog.com
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