Navy delays decision on destroyer BIW to continue work on design phase despite move by defense secretary

WASHINGTON – The top-level review of the Defense Department by Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has forced a delay in the drive to build a new world-class destroyer, a competition that involves Bath Iron Works.

Navy Secretary Glenn England called Sen. Olympia J. Snowe “after the stock markets closed” Thursday evening to tell her of the decision, an aide to Snowe said.

“She had the opportunity to weigh in, but [Rumsfeld] has not asked for her advice,” said Snowe spokesman Dave Lackey. Snowe chaired the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on seapower for the past four years before surrendering the seat for another committee assignment this year.

The Navy had been scheduled to choose one of two competing teams to build a fleet of possibly 32 new warships, known as DD-21 destroyers. Pentagon officials would not say how long the delay would last. Bath Iron Works and Lockheed Martin Corporation are competing against Raytheon Co. and Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding.

Sen. Susan M. Collins, who took over the Armed Services and seapower subcommittee seat, also has been a major advocate for building the new warship.

The sleek, modernistic design would allow a much smaller crew to operate a high-tech warship that uses stealth technology and would support all branches of the armed forces. Officials with General Dynamics, which owns Bath Iron Works, said they were not concerned about the Pentagon’s decision to delay the project and are working with military officials to get clarification on what to do during the delay. The company is continuing work on the second phase of the destroyer’s design under a previously awarded contract.

“It’s not hard to understand why they made the decision [to delay] if they don’t know which direction they want to go in,” said Kendall Pease, a General Dynamics spokesman.

Collins said she was “disappointed” with the decision, which postpones the second phase of competition between BIW and Ingalls, which is based in Pascagoula, Miss.

Advocates of the land-attack destroyer have said it will be a cornerstone of the military’s future war-fighting capabilities, particularly in support of smaller missions that are dominating the missions now faced by the U.S. military. Snowe and Collins both have charged that competition and shared work is essential in maintaining a vital defense industrial base capable of tuning up in the event of an emergency or more critical international situation.

On Friday, Snowe characterized her feelings as “dismayed.”

“I am very concerned about the long-term effects these delays will have on the recapitalization of the fleet, on the defense procurement process, and on our nation’s ship construction industrial complex,” she said.

At the Pentagon, the Defense Department has been shaken by the private, exclusive review that Rumsfeld and some of his closest aides have been undertaking, cutting out not only Capitol Hill Republicans but broad elements of the military bureaucracy.

Collins’ spokeswoman, Megan Sowards, said “the lines of communications” between Rumsfeld and Collins – as well as the Armed Services Committee – have been limited if not nonexistent.

Collins quickly communicated with Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition Robert Pirie and England to complain about the “soundness of this decision.”

“This program and other big-ticket programs are in jeopardy of being eliminated,” said Democratic Rep. John E. Baldacci.

“The Bush administration has indicated that the DD-21 program is not their highest priority. We’ve gotten that sense,” Baldacci said. “This is one that we are certainly going to be working with the appropriate committees to support.”

The chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the subcommittee, have been working to retool the program.

As a result of their work, the design work has given BIW an advantage, Baldacci said. The Ingalls team has slipped in its ability to keep pace. Conversely, BIW was suffering because the Pentagon was allowing the schedule to slip – without new money coming forward – to keep Ingalls involved.

“My hope is that when the Rumsfeld review is complete, that this program will be funded,” Baldacci said. “We have been talking to Bath Iron Works about this, and we have been seeing the signals.”