THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604060295
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding will stay on the offensive through the turn of the century, battling the Navy and other yards for all the naval contracts it can handle, President Bill Fricks said.
``We're going to be interested in almost any military program the Navy has,'' Fricks said. ``If it floats, it's large . . . then we want to build it.''
The shipyard is fresh from a victory to remain in the submarine business. It persuaded Congress last year to reverse the Pentagon's plan to send all future sub work to Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. Fricks said Thursday he remains confident Congress will, this year, add to the 1997 defense budget a $500 million down payment that Newport News needs for a submarine it is scheduled to build in 1999.
Beginning next year, Fricks said, the yard will push the Pentagon to speed up funding for a final Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier. The Navy said it plans to buy nuclear components for the carrier in 2000 so that work can begin in the yard in 2002. Not only is the shorter timetable better for the yard, but it also could be more economical for the Navy, he said.
The yard's aggressive approach to the carrier funding is part of a strategy to use its status as America's largest private shipbuilder and its diverse construction line to beat back smaller competitors and capture contracts for most, if not all, of the warships on the Navy's drawing board for the 21st century.
The yard is part of a team competing to build a new class of amphibious assault ships. The 12-ship contract, worth about $10 billion, will be awarded this year. Also in the yard's sights is the Navy's so-called arsenal ship, a vessel capable of firing 500 missiles or more. While still in the conceptual stage, it is expected to be a new-era battleship.
``We could probably build them all,'' Fricks said. ``We have virtually unlimited capacity in the yard.''
``We may not win,'' he said. ``But we're not going after it that way. Budgets are going to be tight, costs are going to be tight. I think you can provide the Navy with compelling reasons why they need to consider what we're doing.''
Even as it battles for additional Navy work, Fricks said, much of the yard's energy will be focused on landing ship contracts from private companies and foreign navies. The yard was once almost exclusively dependent on the Navy for work, but Fricks said he wants to reduce those contracts to 70 percent of the yard's total workload by the turn of the century.
Newport News is preparing to break ties with Tenneco Corp. of Houston and begin a new life as an independent, publicly traded company.
Fricks said he is in no hurry to form a defense conglomerate of his own despite consolidation elsewhere in the industry.
KEYWORDS: SHIPYARD DEFENSE CONTRACT U.S NAVY by CNB