Long Beach Naval Shipyard Seen Ripe for Closure

The federal commission charged with identifying obsolete military installations has notified critics of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard that it will base its recommendations for closings primarily on facilities’ military importance--a factor on which the opponents consider Long Beach highly vulnerable.

The Long Beach yard, with a work force of 5,013 and a job of reconditioning Navy ships, has been the target of an aggressive campaign by private shipbuilders who contend that it is unnecessary and does work that could be performed better in the private sector.

The critics said Thursday that they were encouraged to learn the ground rules for the review, which will focus more on military need rather than econonic efficiency.

‘Private Sector’

“If there are going to be shipyard closings, this (Long Beach) is certainly one that they’re going to consider,” said retired Rear Adm. Stuart F. Platt, a senior vice president of San Francisco-based Continental Maritime Inc. “Whether the decision is make on the basis of the relative efficiency between the public and private sector or strictly on grounds of military utility, there’s still sufficient basis” to consider closing the yard, Platt said.

In legislation passed in the last session of Congress, the commission was formed to evaluate all military installations and to recommend to Congress which ones should be closed--a number that may approach 50. Congress largely insulated itself from the selection process to prevent political considerations from thwarting the cost-saving closings, as they have in the past.

In a Nov. 3 letter to John J. Stocker, president of the Shipbuilder’s Council of America, commission co-chairman Abraham Ribicoff clarified the criteria for judging obsolescence and stressed that his 12-member group will analyze the nation’s eight naval shipyards “in the context of their military utility, rather than the workload split between the public and private sector.”

Private shipbuilders’ spokesmen said they will stress during the upcoming review process that Long Beach is one of only two Navy yards not qualified to work on the Navy’s nuclear-powered ships, which make up 26% of the U.S. fleet.

While the Navy believes that the Long Beach yard provides critical facilities and special skills in reworking combat systems, Stocker argued that “these same assets and capabilities are . . . readily available in the private sector.”

The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, estimated in a March, 1988, study that private firms perform repair work almost 10% cheaper than public yards.

Stocker said mothballing the yard could save the government as much as $77.5 million a year.

With the number of Navy ships halved since World War II and the current contingent able to operater for longer periods without repairs, “Less non-nuclear shipyard capacity should be necessary,” Stocker said.

Long Beach civic officials hope to counter the shipbuilders’ arguments by stressing improvements in the operation of the shipyard, which is the city’s second largest employer behind McDonnell Douglas Corp.

The Long Beach City Council recently approved formation of a Save Our Shipyard Committee to build its case for the yard.

The shipyard, in operation since 1943, currently is repairing or overhauling six Navy ships. In recent years, the yard has performed repairs on conventionally powered amphibious ships, cruisers, destroyers and frigates.

The yard also has overhauled two of four World War II vintage battleships, the New Jersey and the Missouri, which have been reintroduced to the fleet during the Reagan Administration. The battleship Missouri, commissioned in May, 1986, is to go into dry-dock in Long Beach for minor repairs in February.

Gil C. Bond, a spokesman for the pro-shipyard effort, said the yard has been reducing its costs in the last year to make the facility more competitive.

“We’ve reduced our overhead $20 million in one year, representing a reduction of nearly 15%,” Bond said. “We’ve produced almost the same amount of work with 1,000 fewer people, which shows we’re out to become more efficient.

“It would appear that the effort to close public shipyards is not directed at saving taxpayers’ dollars but is an effort to enhance the private sector’s profit motives,” Bond added.

Staff writer Chris Woodyard contributed to this article from Long Beach.