Seapower - March 2009

INTERCEPTS

“Having lots of warships, from lots of nations who have lots of competing claims on territory — that may lend itself to a rather tense situation. We may see that flash points come to pass there more readily than elsewhere in the world.”

Lee Willett

Head of the maritime studies program at London’s Royal United Services Institute On the security threats that may emerge in the Arctic as melting icepacks open up sea routes and competition for energy reserves in the region.

Associated Press

“U.S. naval interests will face new challenges in an increasingly ice-free Arctic with a strategic objective to understand potential threats to the United States from the maritime domain. As throughout the global commons, the U.S. Navy must be aware of activities that could be harmful to national security interests in a region that will, no doubt, see fewer barriers to access by potential adversaries in the future.”

Rear Adm. David Gove

Oceanographer/Navigator of the Navy

From his essay “Arctic Melt-Reopening A Naval Frontier.” U.S. Naval Institute

Expect Program Cuts
In 2010 Defense Budget

As Congress waits for President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget request, key decision-makers in the administration and on Capitol Hill warned of major cuts to the Pentagon’s procurement accounts.

“One thing we have known for many months is that the spigot of defense spending opened by 9/11 is closing,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee Jan. 27. “With two major [military] campaigns ongoing, the economic crisis and resulting budget pressures will force hard choices on this department.”

Days later, the chairman of that panel, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., gave a similarly morose outlook for funding for major weapon systems. While Levin would not discuss what systems could be targeted for cuts, he suggested that immediate equip-

ment needs will take precedence over more futuristic programs.

“We have got to face the reality that there’s going to be reductions somewhere in the defense budget,” Levin said during a discussion with reporters Jan. 30. “We don’t want to shortchange personnel. We’ve got to fight the current wars we’re in. And so we’ve got to look at the future and we’ve got to make savings there.”

The budget outline, which the administration planned to send to Capitol Hill in late February, was expected to provide only top-line figures for the department. But the details of the budget — including what areas the Pentagon may cut in its procurement accounts — will not be delivered to Congress until late March or early April.

cials are hoping to breathe life into the F-18E/F Super Hornet productions lines in the fiscal 2010 budget.

The aerospace giant is once again meeting with Navy officials and on Capitol Hill to gain support for a third multiyear procurement for the Super Hornets, which, they argue, would mitigate a shortfall in the military’s carrier-based fighter fleet that is expected to plague the Navy until its version of the F- 35 Lightning II fighter, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, comes fully online in 2025.

The firm, which once limited its lobbying on the Super Hornet to members of the congressional defense committees, is branching out to other offices on Capitol Hill to get support for the program, said Bob Gower, vice president of Boeing’s F- 18 programs.

The Navy program generates 110,000 direct and indirect jobs in 44 states, giving Boeing a strong congressional support base at a time when lawmakers are desperate to save jobs in their districts. And unless they get more money for the program, long-lead suppliers will start finishing work on the fighter in October 2010.

After the current multiyear contract expires this year, the Navy currently plans to buy 89 more Super Hornets over the next three years through the traditional procurement process.

But Boeing has offered to sell the Navy 170 aircraft at $49.9 million apiece, a figure company officials say equates to a 7 percent to 10 percent cost savings per aircraft. That offer was due to expire in December, but Boeing extended it until April, when the details of the defense budget are expected to head to Congress.