But you still need to activate your account.
Sign in or Subscribe to view this content.
AUGUSTA – A defense industry publication is reporting that Navy brass have decided to limit the new Zumwalt class of destroyers to just the two under construction, and instead build 11 more of the Burke class that has been the mainstay of the Bath Iron Works workload for nearly 20 years.
“No decision has been made, and I know that for a fact,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Monday in a telephone interview. “But the Navy is reconsidering whether to build the DDG-1000 and that discussion has been intensively under way for several weeks.”
The DDG-1000 is the new class of destroyers named for Adm. Elmo Zumwalt (1901-1996). The DDG-51 class of destroyers is named for another admiral, Arleigh Burke (1920-2000). BIW built the lead ship of that class, delivering it in 1991.
“I am very concerned that this is happening,” Collins said. “The Navy has always said they needed the DDG-1000 and testified several times about the increased capabilities that it has and the Navy has said it needs.”
But a Congressional Budget Office report last month indicated the new warship is significantly over budget, with the cost of the first two of the planned seven ships costing $5 billion each. The original cost of the two ships was estimated at $3.6 billion each.
“The significant cost overruns have caused real concerns among Navy officials,” U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, said Monday in a telephone interview. “I think that is why there is reconsideration of whether to go forward with these ships.”
Allen, who represents the 1st District in which BIW is located, said he is not ready to say which approach is best for the Navy, building more of the Burke-class warships or moving forward with the new Zumwalt class. He has supported funding for the new destroyer, but said the Navy needs to decide what it thinks is the best approach and inform Congress.
“I wrote to [Navy] Secretary [Donald] Winter last week because I am so concerned the Navy does not appear to have a unified position on this,” Allen said.
But Collins believes the review of the Zumwalt class of ships was triggered by the House Armed Services Committee not including funding for a third ship in its version of the Navy shipbuilding budget. She said the Senate version of the budget includes funding.
“If the House [Armed Services Committee] had included the funds needed, I don’t think there would be a review under way today,” she said.
Allen rejected that argument. He said the reason the third ship was not funded is the concern whether the Navy wants the new warship, pointing to several comments by naval officials in recent months.
Collins said the Zumwalt would be a larger and more complex warship than the DDG-51, and it would serve as the technological base for a future “family” of warships including a new class of cruisers. She said that in the long run, BIW would be better off seeing the Zumwalt class built.
Allen believes building the DDG-51s would be better for BIW by providing a steady amount of work over the next several years. He said they also could serve as the “test platform” for new technologies that could be used in future Navy warships.
Collins serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Allen served on the House Armed Services Committee in his first few terms. Collins has criticized Allen for taking a different committee assignment, arguing it would have been better for the state and BIW to have both a senator and a representative serving on the respective armed services panels. Allen has rejected that criticism, saying he has continued to advocate for BIW and funding for other defense projects that benefit the state. He is challenging Collins for the Senate seat in this year’s election.
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, opposes discontinuing construction of the DDG-1000 destroyers in order to build more Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51s.
“If these reports are true, and I hope they are unfounded, it would have a profound impact on the future capabilities of the Navy and our armed forces,” Snowe said in a prepared statement released Monday. “It’s difficult to believe that the Navy would move in this direction after spending nearly $18 billion and dedicating a decade analyzing the capabilities required and developing the innovative technologies for the DDG-1000 warships. Under the current plan, the DDG-1000 currently proposed in the budget will be built at Bath Iron Works. Despite speculation, there has been no official change in policy by the Navy or the Defense Department on the administration’s proposal for building the DDG-1000, or any other warship.”
BIW has built or is building 33 Burke-class destroyers out of the total 61 destroyers now funded. The company is not taking sides in the dispute over which warship should be built and which is best to stabilize the work force at the shipyard.
“We won’t speculate on how the outcome of the current debate may or may not affect us,” said BIW spokesman Jim Martini. “It’s important that we avoid being distracted by things that are outside our control and stay focused on those things we can control.”
He said that it is up to the Navy and Congress to define the nation’s needs and BIW will make sure it can fulfill those needs.
A story on Page A1 of Tuesday’s paper about Navy warships and Bath Iron Works misstated the birth and death years of two Navy admirals for whom classes of destroyers are named. Adm. Arleigh Burke lived from 1901 to 1996. Adm. Elmo Zumwalt lived from 1920 to 2000.
Comments
comments for this post are closed