Pentagon Cuts to Bring Ships, Personnel to S.D.

Nine Navy ships will be transferred from Long Beach to San Diego over the next three years, and other support units will be merged with existing Navy commands in San Diego when the Pentagon begins closing military facilities throughout the United States next year, officials said.

Pentagon officials released sketchy details of the long-awaited base closure plans Tuesday. The changes affecting San Diego will begin next September, when the Naval Space Systems Activity and its small staff will be transferred from Los Angeles to the Naval Command Control and Ocean Surveillance Center in San Diego.

The local surveillance center also is scheduled to receive personnel from other Navy units scheduled for deactivation. The Naval Ocean Systems Center Detachment in Hawaii will be deactivated in September, 1993, and some of its personnel transferred to San Diego.

In addition, the Naval Electronic Systems Engineering Center in San Diego will also be deactivated in September, 1995, and its personnel transferred to the surveillance center. The engineering center employs more than 500.

Another San Diego-based unit, the Integrated Combat System Test Facility, will be deactivated by September, 1994, and its personnel and functions transferred to a Navy unit at Port Hueneme.

On Wednesday, Navy officials said the shutdown of the Long Beach Naval Station will begin in 1993, when five ships will be transferred to their new home port in San Diego. According to a Pentagon report released Tuesday, the ships will include three reserve guided missile frigates, one dock landing ship and an amphibious assault ship.

In 1994, two more reserve guided missile frigates, one guided missile frigate on active duty and another dock landing ship will be transferred to San Diego. The closing of the Long Beach Navy base will be completed in 1996.

The Navy is now cleaning up seven toxic waste sites at the Long Beach base. Although the base is scheduled to close in 1995, the cleanup will not be completed until January, 2005, Navy officials said.

Local Navy spokesmen said Wednesday that they still do not know which ships will be transferred to San Diego or how many sailors will accompany the ships.