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Hunter Suggests NATO Take Over JFK Flattop
05/15/2006

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is suggesting NATO take over the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, which the U.S. Navy and the Bush administration want to retire early for budget reasons.

The move would keep the flattop active to some degree while providing an incentive for NATO allies to further fund and develop their own defense capabilities, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) told Capitol Hill reporters May 11.

"We want the administration to talk to NATO about the John F. Kennedy being a NATO ship," Hunter said. "Typically the United States brings the T-bone steaks and some of our allies bring the plastic forks. The John F. Kennedy might be a center for ... inspiring our allies to do more with respect to defense."

He did not elaborate on more details, but noted that the aircraft carrier hosts helicopter and vertical-lift aircraft.

Hunter also said the Coast Guard was approached about taking the JFK for use as an operations center after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, but the Homeland Security Department didn't think it would fit into its Deepwater recapitalization program.

Regardless, the NATO idea is the latest indication of the HASC's resistance to retiring the JFK, which the Navy is proposing to sacrifice to help pay for its long-term shipbuilding and force structure plan (DAILY, May 1).

"We've still got our 12 carrier requirement," Hunter said of the House's fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill (DAILY, May 12).

"So much is involved with Navy presence," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), ranking HASC Democrat, who talked with reporters alongside Hunter. Skelton has voiced concern since the JFK retirement proposal surfaced last year that the Pacific Ocean alone is too big to transit quickly, and an absence of U.S. ships sends a message by itself. He has also noted the immediate, significant loss of naval capability if an aircraft carrier were destroyed or damaged in combat.

Meanwhile, Hunter, echoing earlier recommendations by projection forces chair Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), said May 12 he remains skeptical of the Navy's $14 billion proposal for the futuristic CVN 21 class of aircraft carriers. Nimitz-class ships have cost $4-$5 billion, he stressed, and he is not convinced the CVN 21 would achieve enough fighter-sortie capability to justify the cost.

Hunter also said the Navy should build more Sea Fighters, the Littoral Surface Craft Experimental crafts developed by a Titan-led team for the Office of Naval Research, and load them with cruise missiles.

Meanwhile, the HASC included provisions calling for the Navy to revalidate CVN-21 cost estimates, and the bill caps detail design, nonrecurring engineering and actual construction of the lead ship of the class to $10.5 billion. Follow-on ships would be capped at $8.1 billion apiece.

Another provision calls for the CVN-21 program to be specifically examined under the Defense Acquisition Challenge Program, which the bill also infuses with potential programmatic recompetition in some circumstances.

Originalartikel zu finden unter: http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_aerospacedaily_story.jsp?id=news/JFK05156.xml