The Navy’s proposal to delay the purchase of a Virginia-class submarine and curtail other shipbuilding plans are being scrutinized by several Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) members.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, President Barack Obama’s nominee to command the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), faced multiple questions yesterday about how the Pentagon’s new strategy, which calls for an increased emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region, jibes with its budget proposal that scales back multiple ship programs.
SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the outset of Locklear’s confirmation hearing launched into a critique of Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which the White House will release next Monday. The plan, the Pentagon said Jan. 26, calls for putting off the purchase of one Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine, two Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), and eight Joint High Speed Vessels, while retiring ships including seven CG-47 cruisers.
“Cuts to our naval capabilities such as these, without a plan to compensate for them, only put our goals in the Pacific region at greater risk,” McCain said.
Locklear’s SASC confirmation hearing came a month after the Pentagon unveiled a new strategic guidance calling for a more-robust U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific (Defense Daily, Jan. 6). Republicans in the House and Senate have been sounding alarms about the Navy’s curtailed shipbuilding plans. SASC member Susan Collins (R-Maine), a major shipbuilding advocate who represents the Bath Iron Works shipyard, told reporters recently she is planning meetings with Navy brass as she attempts to reverse some of the proposed cuts.
SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has declined to share, when asked, his views on the administration’s planned shipbuilding reduction. During yesterday’s hearing, he said that “stability and security in the Asia-Pacific is indeed in the United States’ national interest and we must maintain and support a strategy that recognizes and protects that interest.”
Locklear, for his part, said it’s “difficult, particularly from a Navy perspective, for us to see those type of decisions… that have been made and will ultimately be made in budget decisions.”
“But,” he added, “we’ll have to manage with the resources that the American people give us, that you authorize us.”
SASC members Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) both questioned Locklear on the Virginia-class submarine, which generates work for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in their state.
The Pentagon’s new budget proposal calls for dipping the number of the subs from 10 to nine over the next five years.
“I’m concerned about what I see as a mismatch between our stated national security objectives and a portion of the Pentagon budget proposal,” Ayotte said, noting Locklear’s description of the Virginia-class submarine as “a backbone and a critical element to our national security.”
Locklear said the Navy starts with a strategy before making budget decisions, and if confirmed said he will identify “where the risks are unacceptable” for him.
Ayotte also highlighted the what she sees as the “importance” of the LCS. The Pentagon wants to trim its buy of the vessels from 20 to 18 over the next five years.