The Associated Press August 25, 2005
New England Sub Base, Shipyard Remain Open
By Matt Apuzzo
While supporters cheered a federal commission's vote to keep open a submarine base in Connecticut and a shipyard on the Maine-New Hampshire border, the fate of the submarine fleet still remains uncertain.
The Base Closure and Realignment commission voted Wednesday to keep open several major Army and Navy bases that military planners want to shut down, including the New London submarine base in Groton and the Portsmouth shipyard in Kittery, Maine, which repairs submarines.
But while the bases were spared, the number of subs is dwindling. Navy shipbuilding projections show the number of subs dropping from 54 into the 30s.
Currently, the Navy builds one submarine a year or fewer. It needs to increase production to two a year to keep pace with the old submarines that go out of service, said Neil Ruenzel, a spokesman for Electric Boat, which builds submarines in Groton.
"You're going to have a submarine base that's not going to have any submarines," said John Pike, a military analyst with globalsecurity.org. "They're just going to be standing around twiddling their thumbs for some time."
Officials agreed that simply keeping the bases open doesn't guarantee new subs will be built.
"We've got to convince people of the importance of building two a year," said Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record), D-Conn. "We've got a case to make here, to prove the value of it, and that's the next step."
Within hours of hearing that Groton and Portsmouth had been spared, Gov. M. Jodi Rell called on Congress and President Bush to boost submarine production.
The debate is expected to begin late this year or early next year, when the Pentagon releases its Quadrennial Defense Review, a four-year review of the nation's military strategy. That should signal whether the Pentagon remains committed to reducing the size of the fleet.
If submarine production doesn't increase, Pike said, Groton and Portsmouth will find themselves on a future BRAC list.
© Copyright 2005, The Associated Press
