Posted on 06/26/2002 8:52:03 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
WASHINGTON -- A powerful congressional committee says the Navy is cutting corners unwisely to save money on construction of an aircraft carrier in Newport News. It wants Congress to require that the $5 billion ship be equipped with a new, $250 million radar system.In a report released this week, the House Appropriations Committee said the Navy has eschewed a variety of new but expensive technologies in the construction of the carrier, now called CVN-77. To save money, the service plans to outfit the ship with ``vintage radars, basic self-defense capabilities . . . (and) generation-old computer processors,'' the panel said.
In unusually blunt language, the committee said the Navy's planned approach ``deprives the fleet of significant warfighting improvements'' and ``unnecessarily increases the technological risk and total cost'' of CVN(X), a new-design carrier that will follow CVN-77.
``As originally envisioned, the CVN-77 was to be a bridge to the future,'' the committee said. The ship should be used to test and refine new systems that will come to maturity on CVN(X), according to the report. A Navy spokeswoman said the service would have no comment on the legislation until Congress completes action on it. Lawmakers face a Sept. 30 deadline but could push it back by approving one or more short-term spending bills.
The Navy decided last year to use an older radar system on CVN-77 after it canceled plans for a new class of destroyers.
But lobbyists for Lockheed Martin, which had been awarded a contract to develop the new radar, lobbied aggressively to keep it alive.
CVN-77 is in the early stages of construction at Newport News Shipbuilding. The Navy wants to begin building CVN(X) in 2007.
The committee's recommendations on carrier programs are part of a $355 billion defense spending bill that could be debated on the House floor as early as today.
Senators are to develop a similar appropriations bill once the House finishes.
Overall, the Bush administration has proposed almost $44 billion in defense spending increases, the largest hike since the 1960s, with $10 billion of the total dedicated this year to the war on terrorism.
While the administration seems likely to get most of what it wants, contentious debates in several areas have replaced the bipartisan unity that dominated Washington's defense discussions in the months immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Indeed, Bush is threatening to veto the entire defense spending plan if it includes a proposal by Senate Democrats to trim $812 million -- just under 10 percent -- from his budget for development of a national missile defense system.
The administration also has warned a bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress that it will veto any defense spending plan that permits disabled military retirees to simultaneously collect their pensions and disability benefits paid by the Veterans Administration.
Current law requires that military pension payments be offset by any VA disability checks being paid to service retirees. Civilian employers are not allowed to apply such offsets to the pensions of civilian retirees who qualify for VA benefits.
Both houses have overwhelmingly endorsed ``concurrent receipt,'' as the dual payments are called. But the administration, facing estimates that the added benefit could cost $2 billion or more per year, has joined its predecessors in opposing it.
``This is a very, very difficult issue and we're working closely with the VA and the White House and others to make sure that people in uniform get all the benefits they deserve,'' said Victoria Clarke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
But lobbyists for Lockheed Martin, which had been awarded a contract to develop the new radar, lobbied aggressively to keep it alive.
Give me a break! They want to develop a new radar system for the new carrier - then test it in real combat. Sorry - put the older, already-proven technology on the new ship, then retrofit once the new techology is proven. Yes, that is more expensive. Getting a ship blown out of the water because the new radar had a vulnerability or just didn't work is VERY expensive.
A carrier doesn't just roll around the ocean pinging away with its radar, it would compromise its postion.
It also has a bunch of other ships around it for protection. If the new radar is that much better, put it on some smaller ships first.
I was only an Army tanker, but even I know you don't put unproven, not yet developed technology on a front-line piece of equipment.
Notionally, you'd like to shift away from a platform-centric sensor system to a network-centric approach to reduce platform risk and maximize sensor coverage. Maintaining a wireless LAN in an hostile electronic battlefield is a bugger, however.
In a hostile environment, the radar would be mostly turned off. The new $250M radar would mostly be used to avoid collisions with private boats as the carrier comes into harbor. For that, the old radar works just fine.
Radar is essentially line of site. The horizon on the ocean is 12 1/2 miles away. Put a radar up on a mast and you get out maybe 50-60 miles. So the E-2C is used as the fleet's eyes since at altitude it's range is essentially unlimited, but in practical terms, good for at least 200 miles and it can simultaneously track over 200 targets. Other aircraft (S-3, SH-60, etc.) can also carry radar for specific roles. Compromising its position is the last of a carrier's problems. It sails with its own fleet, and enemies know where it is from hundreds of miles away.
The radar system referred to in the article is probably AEGIS, which is the basis for the CG-47 and DDG-51 air defense radar suites. It's good but very expensive.
pabianice USNR (Ret.)
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