Navy to push for destroyer deal at BIW Pentagon changes course, wants a third DDG-1000

PORTLAND – The Navy has changed course and decided to push for construction of a third DDG-1000 destroyer that would be built at Bath Iron Works, Sen. Susan Collins said Monday.

The Maine Republican said Navy Secretary Donald Winter informed her of the decision that comes one month after the Navy said it was scrapping the Zumwalt destroyer program once the first two are built. The Navy said at the time that it was opting instead to build more of the current-generation DDG-51, or Arleigh Burke, destroyers.

Collins quoted Winter as saying that in addition to seeking another DDG-1000, the Navy plans to reprogram some funding to purchase spare parts for DDG-51s that also could be used to restart production of that class of ships.

“This is great news for Bath Iron Works,” she said in a telephone interview. “It means that the third [DDG-1000] ship is very likely to go forward, and yet there’s also the potential of building more DDG-51s.”

In a letter to Collins, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England indicated that the shift in the Navy’s thinking was due in part to concerns about a potential disruption in the nation’s shipbuilding base.

“This plan will provide stability of the industrial base and continue the development of advanced surface ship technologies such as radar systems, stealth, magnetic and acoustic quieting, and automated damage control,” England wrote.

The House and the Senate have been at odds on the future of the Zumwalt, one of which will be built at Bath and the other at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls yard in Pascagoula, Miss. The Senate authorized funding for a third ship at $2.6 billion, while the House eliminated the money from its version of the defense appropriations bill.

“This is still an issue that we’ll have to work out in conference,” Collins said.

Originally conceived as a stealth warship with massive firepower, the Zumwalt features composite materials, an unconventional wave-piercing hull and a smaller crew than the Arleigh Burke. At 14,500 tons, the Zumwalt is 50 percent larger than its predecessor and costs twice as much.

Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she was aware that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had met a couple of weeks ago to reconsider the destroyer decision.

“I had heard that they were trying to work through the industrial base issues,” she said. “This is clearly the result.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, who is challenging Collins for her Senate seat in November, said the decision to seek funding for a third DDG-1000 and to reactivate the DDG-51 program reaffirms the Navy’s confidence in BIW’s work force.

“The Navy will rely on them to build whatever vessels it determines are in the best interest of our nation’s security,” Allen said.

Sen. Olympia Snowe said Pentagon and Navy officials should meet with BIW leaders soon to discuss details of the proposal.

“As I heard during many hearings on this critical matter, it is essential that the Armed Forces have a destroyer capable of successfully defending the nation’s interests in the 21st century,” said Snowe.

Led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a group of lawmakers from Massachusetts and Rhode Island also last month urged Gates to reconsider the Navy’s plans to buy only two new DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyers, instead of the seven planned.

The lawmakers argued that Navy leaders over the last decade have touted the benefits of the destroyer. The destroyer program is important to Waltham, Mass.-based defense firm Raytheon Co. They threatened to block future shipbuilding funds unless military officials could better justify their move.