Senate leaders take fight to keep carrier up the chain

WASHINGTON

Virginia's top officials on Thursday sharpened their rhetoric and sketched out the arguments they'll make to Congress and the new Obama administration in a bid to overturn a Navy proposal to move one of five locally based aircraft carriers to Florida.

The Navy plan "is ill-timed. It is ill-advised. It is not supported by economic logic or strategic logic," declared U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat.

"I was stunned" at the weakness of the Navy's rationale for the move, said soon-to-retire Sen. John Warner, a Republican who was briefed on it earlier this week.

The Navy plan "doesn't really pass the smell test all around," said U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake, another Republican.

Hampton Roads stands to lose 11,000 jobs and $650 million if the carrier goes, according to an estimate from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

In a news conference with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen.-elect Mark Warner, Webb and John Warner said they've asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to block the Navy's formal issuance - scheduled for today - of a recommendation to relocate a carrier to Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville.

The Navy has cited a need to disperse its East Coast carriers for security reasons.

"The Navy has made no compelling arguments to justify its decision," the senators wrote. The "meager advantages" the service claims for Mayport over Norfolk "are slight at best," they claimed, while the cost of improvements to the Mayport base to accommodate a nuclear-powered carrier could approach $1 billion. The Navy currently estimates the cost at less than $600 million.

That expense comes as the Navy is fighting for money for new ships and aircraft that are wearing out faster than expected because of service in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Navy has identified more than $4 billion worth of supplies and equipment that are required for its missions but that it currently can't afford.

If Gates declines to intervene and Navy Secretary Donald Winter adopts the Mayport recommendation, the Virginia officials said they'll press their case with the new Obama administration and in hearings next year on Capitol Hill, where the service would have to seek funds to renovate Mayport.

Kaine, one of the president-elect's earliest and most prominent supporters, said he's already spoken to members of Obama's transition team about Virginia's concerns with the Navy plan.

Other than acknowledging that they're recommending placing a carrier in Mayport, Navy officials have kept mum this week on their plans and the rationale for them. Pentagon officials did not respond Thursday to requests for comment on the Warner-Webb letter to Gates.

Briefing papers the service provided to lawmakers suggest that Navy leaders believe the five East Coast carriers should be dispersed as a hedge against a natural disaster or attack that could shut or cripple the sprawling Norfolk base.

The dispersal argument had some validity during the Cold War, when a robust Soviet navy was a potential threat on the East Coast, Sens. Webb and Warner said. But that threat is long gone, and dispersing the carriers today would simply create more targets that would have to be secured - expensively - against potential terrorist attacks, Webb said.

The Virginians also noted that it's unusual to have more than two or three carriers at home at any one time. They scoffed at the Navy's suggestion that moving a carrier to Mayport would provide a hedge against hurricane damage.

Forbes said Navy officials acknowledged that the risk of the Norfolk base being knocked out of action is slight - certainly less than 10 percent. In contrast, he said, there is no doubt that without an additional $5 billion by 2014, the service's inventory of F/A-18 fighter-bombers will be 125 planes short of its needs.

Forbes said the Navy's push for Mayport is a "rush to judgment" to cement the Florida base as the home of the Navy's newest carrier, the George H.W. Bush, before the current President Bush leaves office. He recalled a White House Christmas reception several years ago in which he overheard the president giving a Florida lawmaker assurances to the effect that "we're going to get you that carrier down in Florida."

The new carrier is widely expected to be the one sent to Mayport, once facilities are constructed there to accommodate it.

Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican, argued that "the Navy's decision is based on logic and reason; this is what's best for our national security."

"Mayport is strategically beneficial to the Navy's needs and offsets the risks associated with a single East Coast homeport," he said.

The rivalry between Florida and Virginia for Navy assets stretches back to at least 1993, when a federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC, ordered the closing of Cecil Field near Jacksonville while retaining Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.

In 2005, another BRAC panel tried to put Oceana on the closure list. Florida promised $200 million to re open Cecil Field as the service's East Coast master jet base. The state later withdrew its offer when Jacksonville residents protested the move.

Kaine noted that history Thursday, arguing that while Virginia eventually agreed to spend $15 million annually to purchase homes and businesses around Oceana to satisfy the Navy's concerns about nearby development, Jacksonville showed hostility to the service.

Retired Adm. Robert Natter, a former Atlantic Fleet commander who has served as a consultant to Florida officials on military matters, said Jacksonville and the Sunshine State have encouraged the Navy to stay in Mayport with tax incentives and military-friendly laws.

Virginia makes the same effort, Natter acknowledged. "I wouldn't give more credit to one area over another," he said. "Norfolk is the best Navy area in the world. It is also the biggest."

Rather than argue over Norfolk versus Mayport, the state delegations should push their common interest in a larger fleet, Natter suggested. "Work harder on building ships," he said.

Pilot researchers Jakon Hays and Maureen Watts contributed to this report.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com