DATE: Thursday, May 1, 1997 TAG: 9705010492 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 84 lines
Senior officials of the Navy, Army and Air Force said Wednesday that their services are united in advocating another round of base closings.
Without it, they said, the military could be forced to further cut troop strength or the purchase of new planes, ships and other equipment needed to maintain military superiority.
The comments, at a symposium on military issues at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, came a day after Defense Secretary William Cohen said he may propose more base closings in a sweeping review of the nation's defenses due in Congress May 15.
Congress, largely following the recommendations of the Base Realignment and Closing Commission, has approved the shutdown of 97 major bases since 1988. The most recent round was in 1995.
In that most recent round, Hampton Roads was one of the few military communities to actually benefit. For example, a squad of F/A-18 Hornets that had been slated for assignment to the Cherry Point Air Station in North Carolina was redirected to the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
Speakers Wednesday said the military services are still saddled by outdated facilities. They said the bases drain money needed to update the military's combat arsenal and keep skilled personnel deployed in potential trouble spots around the globe.
``At the rate we are going . . . eventually the Navy would just attrite out of business, the Army would run out of tanks and the Air Force out of airplanes,'' said Rear Adm. James B. Hinkle. ``We are not modernizing at a sufficient rate to maintain the force that is necessary.''
Hinkle said in a subsequent interview that the May 15 report, called the Quadrennial Defense Review, will not recommend the closing of any bases by name. But he said it will call for Congress to authorize another round of base closings.
``All of the services believe that there is a need for another BRAC,'' said Hinkle, who directs the Navy's Quadrennial Defense Review support office and also commands a Norfolk-based group of cruisers and destroyers.
His comments paralleled those by Brig. Gen. Bruce K. Scott, the Army's deputy director of strategy, plans and policy. Scott noted that the Army has cut troop strength by 36 percent since the late 1980s, while trimming the cost of operating its infrastructure of bases and other facilities by 21 percent. ``There's a disconnect there,'' he said. ``We need to see a closer alignment.''
Col. William K. Davis, special assistant for long-range planning for the Air Force's Air Combat Command, said the ``need for a trim in infrastructure'' is an area ``in which all the services are in locked arms on.''
Military officials have become increasingly outspoken in recent months about the need to tackle overhead costs. In a speech in Norfolk April 18, Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., vice chief of naval operations, predicted that cuts at bases, depots and other facilities will be politically difficult, but said the Navy has no acceptable alternative if it wants to buy new ships and planes to guarantee its long-term superiority.
Clifford Geiger, an assistant deputy chief of naval operations, noted Wednesday that a Pentagon advisory panel said in a report last year that the military services could gain $30 billion annually for modernization and troop requirements largely by following management practices of successful U.S. companies.
He said the military's supply depots and other inventory-handling facilities are prime examples. They store an estimated $60 billion in equipment and parts and issue about $16 billion worth each year, he said. In the commercial world, the two figures would likely be reversed, he indicated.
Within the Navy, there are numerous examples of inefficiencies, he said.
He cited the Navy's housing-management function as an example. With 1,400 employees, it has a budget of $100 million a year, he said. If the Navy contracted the operation to a private company, ``I bet I would receive bids for a whole heck of a lot less.''
Geiger and other speakers said the services won't achieve their desired savings in infrastructure and overhead costs unless Congress rescinds some laws.
The Navy would like to contract some base-security and firefighting functions to private companies, Geiger said, but is prevented from doing so by law. Several speakers also complained about a law that limits the amount of certain ship- or plane-repair work that can be contracted out. ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Rear Adm. James B. Hinkle, left, who directs the Navy's Quadrennial
Defense Review support office and also commands a Norfolk-based
group of cruisers and destroyers, confers with participants at a
symposium on military issues at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott
Tuesday.
Send Suggestions or Comments to
webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu |