Va. fights carrier’s move

Virginia is fighting a looming decision by the Navy to move an aircraft carrier from Norfolk to Mayport Naval Air Station near Jacksonville, Fla.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine joined Virginia's U.S. senators and senator-elect at the U.S. Capitol yesterday to call such a decision in the final weeks of the Bush administration "ill-timed" and "ill-advised."

The Virginia lawmakers fear moving the carrier to Florida would be another blow to the state's economy, shifting thousands of sailors and their families and erasing jobs.

"This is a mini kind of end run," said Republican Sen. John W. Warner, a former secretary of the Navy. He criticized the Pentagon for not following typical base-realignment procedures that allow for consultation with all service branches and states.

Kaine said he had spoken to the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama about what he saw as an eleventh-hour move by the outgoing Bush administration.

"There should be a hold placed on this, and there shouldn't be any deference given necessarily to this recommendation," Kaine said he told Obama advisers.

Norfolk, the world's largest naval station, is home to 78 ships and 133 aircraft, including five aircraft carriers.

The Navy's Final Environmental Impact Statement cited the importance of dispersing the East Coast aircraft carriers as "a hedge against a catastrophic event in Norfolk."

The Navy found Mayport held a slight advantage over Norfolk on three of five criteria: physical force protec-- tion, risk of manmade disaster, and access to training ranges.

Norfolk was said to have a slight advantage in only one area -- response time to key worldwide locations. The two ports were said to have similar risks from hurricanes.

Sen. Jim Webb, also a former secretary of the Navy, called the analysis "flawed and incomplete."

And he dismissed as outdated arguments calling for dispersing the Navy's Atlantic fleet.

"That was a great idea in World War II," said Webb, a Democrat. "It has no validity today when we're talking about the technology that is needed to protect assets against international terrorism."

In a letter sent to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday, Warner and Webb said a Navy briefing they received this week "made no compelling argument to justify its decision."

The last carrier to leave Norfolk was the USS George Washington, which moved to Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan in April, 28 months after the Navy announced the move.

Webb and Warner's letter to Gates said it is "inconceivable" the Pentagon can't wait an extra 90 days before making a decision.

But Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., called for no delays. "It's time to do it now," he said.

Mayport lost its only aircraft carrier in August 2007 when the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned.

"It's in the interest of national security," Nelson said. "You replace the John F. Kennedy with another carrier. You don't put them all in one location."

A new carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, is to be commissioned in January. Webb said there has been speculation the Navy wants to send that ship to Florida, where the Bush family has been prominent in politics. But creating a carrier port in Florida would cost at least $600 million, possibly $1 billion, Warner and Webb said.

The Navy's decision, which is to be published today in the Federal Register, is slated to be finalized Dec. 31.

Virginia should have seen the carrier move coming, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy think tank.

"It's the surprise-free decision," he said. "I think [the Navy is] preserving the status quo."

Pike pointed to West Coast naval stations, where most of the Pacific fleet carriers are based in San Diego with the rest near Seattle.

He sees the decision as a victory for Mayport. "If they didn't have a carrier to anchor activity there, you'd have to be concerned other pieces would be peeled off," he said.
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