The coming fight for new Navy ships

Amid the scrambling in Congress over Defense money and where to base nuclear aircraft carriers, another decision will soon confront the Navy: where to homeport 32 high-tech littoral combat ships.

The final determination is a long way off, but given that one of Hampton Roads' carriers, the Enterprise, will be decommissioned in 2012, it's worth thinking about what the Navy's presence will look like then - and what the region and state need to do to welcome the future.

Hampton Roads is home to the world's largest naval base, with 63 ships, 16 aircraft squadrons and 165 aircraft. More than 100,000 military jobs are here - many of them filled by our neighbors, mentors to our children, members of our churches. Defense-related spending supports close to half the local economy.

All that is in jeopardy, thanks to a relentless lobbying effort to shift military assets south.

Mayport, Fla., already has the Navy's nod to get at least one of the five $4.5 billion nuc-lear carriers - despite the $1 billion cost of renovating the Jacksonville base to accommodate it. If Congress approves money for Mayport, it's likely that more than one carrier and possibly as many as three could move there.

The competition between Mayport and Norfolk has been cutthroat since the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission hearings in 2005, when officials threatened to move the East Coast Master Jet Base from Oceana Naval Air Station to Florida.

Now a report on the plan for the littoral homeport indicates Mayport will be the primary base for the East Coast fleet when the ships are ready for commissioning. Each ship, estimated to cost nearly $600 million, carries a crew of about 50, is designed to operate close to shore and can provide intelligence gathering, ground support and serve as a local command vessel, depending on which of several modules is installed.

Compared with nuclear carriers, which have crews of more than 3,000 each, the littorals don't bring nearly the number of jobs or spending. U.S. Sen. Jim Webb suggests that - instead of spending money to make Mayport ready for nuclear carriers - the Navy should send all 32 East Coast combat ships there.

The Navy hasn't determined the ships' design, or where they will be based. The next step is an environmental impact study. Before the Navy is ready to determine the homeport, Virginia must offer reasons to bring at least some of the littoral fleet to Hampton Roads.

It can pitch prime storage space and training facilities off Northampton Boulevard, which is being redeveloped as a mixed-use neighborhood with commercial, industrial and residential components. It can offer expertise found at Hampton and Old Dominion universities' technology centers.

Gov. Bob McDonnell campaigned on a promise to bring more jobs to the commonwealth, but as much as we need new jobs, it's equally important to keep the ones we have, thanks to the Navy.