Pentagon postpones Florida carrier move

The Pentagon has decided to postpone the Navy’s decision to move a nuclear powered aircraft carrier to Florida until it conducts a sweeping strategic review.

The decision hands an initial victory to Virginia’s politicians, including Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who has been pressing for Obama’s Pentagon to study the move as part of the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review, a sweeping analysis of military strategy and capabilities.

{mosads}“I am gratified that the Department of Defense has formally decided to postpone the major elements of the Navy’s proposal until after a proper strategic review has been conducted, as I have consistently urged,” Webb said in a statement Thursday.  

However, the real test for Virginians will come during the budget approval process for 2010, when they will have to fight off any budget requests to prepare the Mayport naval base in Jacksonville, Fla. for housing a nuclear carrier. The Navy earlier this year decided to move a nuclear powered aircraft carrier from Norfolk, Va. to Jacksonville, Fla.

Mayport currently is not capable of housing that carrier and the Navy’s budget request for 2010 will likely include funds for dredging at the very least. Mayport will not be ready to house the carrier until 2014.

Florida’s delegation has been dogged in trying to get a carrier moved to the Jacksonville area. The move could generate billions of dollars for the local economy.

Virginia is trying to hold on to as many carriers as possible. The state’s delegation argues that it would be fiscally irresponsible to spend millions of dollars to prepare Florida to accommodate the carrier at a time of tightening budgets. Florida will need at least $500 million to build special maintenance facilities, road improvements and dredging at Mayport.

Meanwhile, 18 House members from districts across the country sent a letter to the acting Secretary of the Navy, B.J. Penn, warning him that they would oppose any requests for funding in the 2010 budget to move a carrier to Florida. The letter was headlined by Reps. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.), but got support from veteran defense appropriator Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) as well as Reps. John Fleming (R-La.), Zach Space (D-Ohio) and Eric Massa (D-N.Y.), among others.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Nye said that Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn confirmed to him in a phone conversation that the Pentagon will not request funding for the construction of the facilities needed to homeport the nuclear carrier.  

The likely candidate for the move to Florida is the recently-commissioned U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, a carrier that the Navy will keep in Norfolk for the time being.

The entire Bush family was present at the ship’s commissioning in Norfolk just days before President Bush stepped down. It is no secret that the Bush family prefers to see the carrier named after the 41st president in Florida where Jeb Bush, the president’s son, was the governor.

Mayport was also designated the home of the 4th Fleet, with responsibility over the Southern Hemisphere. That designation could bolster not only Mayport’s military role, but also its chances of getting a nuclear-powered carrier.

Moreover, Mayport was home to the conventionally powered U.S.S. John F. Kennedy carrier until it was decommissioned last March.

Mayport is set to lose other ships, too. Ten frigates will be decommissioned by 2014, and the number of sailors will decline from 13,300 to fewer than 9,300.

Unless a carrier or other ships are added, the ship-repair industry around the area will deteriorate – an argument tapped by Mayport’s proponents.