Northrop cautious about Navy cuts

PASCAGOULA, Miss. – The president of Bath Iron Works’ rival shipyard is taking a wait-and-see approach to reports that the Navy wants to slash construction and delay production of the DD-X destroyer.

A Navy budget proposal reported by the media this week represents a work in progress that is far from completion, said Philip Dur, president of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.

“It is too early to view these accounts with alarm,” Dur told The Sun Herald newspapers of South Mississippi.

The Navy budget proposal reported by The Washington Post would provide funds to build only four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in 2006, compared with nine planned for 2005, and would delay production of the new DD-X stealth destroyers to 2007, from a previous target of 2005.

Mike Keenan, president of the Machinists Union Local S6 in Bath, said any delays in the DD-X program could be “devastating.”

Maine’s and Mississippi’s congressional delegations are already lining up against the proposal. U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., calls the proposed cuts and delays shortsighted.

“When you need a fleet it’s too late to go out and build one. It’s got to be there in place with well-trained sailors,” said Taylor.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, formerly known as Ingalls Shipbuilding, is Mississippi’s largest private employer with more than 12,000 workers and operations in Pascagoula and Gulfport. The company also has a large shipyard in New Orleans and owns the Newport News yard in Virginia. Shipbuilding accounted for 20 percent of Northrop’s 2003 revenues of $26.2 billion.

Bath Iron Works is owned by General Dynamics, which has declined to comment on the Navy budget proposals.