Navy Officials Propose Deep Cuts in Fleet

The Navy has proposed slashing its current 452-vessel fleet to 340 ships and scaling back purchases of expensive next-generation attack aircraft in an effort to meet rapidly tightening budgetary restrictions in the post-Cold War world.

The plan has been presented to Defense Secretary Les Aspin as part of the “bottom-up review” of U.S. defense strategy that he is conducting for the fiscal 1995 Pentagon budget.

Aspin has not reacted to the Navy proposal and is not expected to decide on specific elements until the overall review is well under way.

The Navy plan would maintain the current 12 aircraft carriers but would eliminate more than 35 submarines between now and 1999, as well as make significant cuts in frigates, amphibious craft and other vessels.

It also calls for phasing out all of the Navy’s aging A-6 bombers and for purchasing fewer of the proposed F/A-18E/F aircraft--designed as a replacement for the A-6 and the F-14 fighter plane--than had been envisioned.

Navy officials also confirmed that they are holding discussions with their counterparts in the Air Force on the possibility of scrapping the proposed AFX--its first radar-evading fighter-bomber--in favor of developing a joint Navy-Air Force attack fighter.

Navy strategists said the plan is intended to carry out the post-Cold War mission that the Navy adopted last fall, calling for less emphasis on patrolling the high seas and more stress on coastal operations, as in Somalia.

But Vice Adm. Leighton W. Smith, deputy chief of naval operations for plans and policies, conceded that at least part of the Navy’s motivation in accepting other cuts is to enable it “to protect to the degree we can” its current fleet of 12 aircraft carriers.

The Navy has been under increasing pressure from the White House and some members of Congress to trim the number of carriers to 10. President Clinton endorsed that concept during the 1992 presidential campaign.

But Smith argued in a briefing for reporters that if the Navy’s carrier strength is cut to 10, the service no longer will be able to keep aircraft carriers constantly deployed in as many potential trouble spots around the world as it now does.

Navy officials said they have no firm estimates on how much money the cutbacks would save, but a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office suggests that it could save as much as $13 billion a year by early in the next century.

The Navy’s plan, if approved by Aspin and later by Congress, would mark a major turnaround for the service. During the early 1980s, then-President Ronald Reagan advocated a 600-ship fleet, which was cut in the early 1990s to 450 ships.

It also would have broad implications for the nation’s defense industry, which would be asked to slow the production of submarines and fighter aircraft. It would also force the closing of additional Navy bases, which are already being shut down rapidly.

Critics say that, in many ways, the Navy’s new plan represents little more than a catch-up. Both the Army and Air Force have already made major changes designed to streamline their forces and procurement, while the Navy has lagged behind until recently.

But Navy officials argue that the plan is a natural outgrowth of the reforms ordered in 1991 by Adm. Frank B. Kelso, the chief of naval operations, combined with the realities of the shrinking defense budget.

Smith said the new Navy proposal has received a generally favorable response in private discussions with members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees. But it is unclear how the Administration will react to the plan.

Despite Clinton’s endorsement during the campaign of a 10-carrier Navy, Aspin once had argued for retaining at least 11 aircraft carriers.

Smith told reporters that the proposal would call for cutting the Navy’s fleet of attack submarines, which were designed to deter Soviet ballistic missile subs, from 88 now in use to 56 by 1999 and 45 in the early part of the 21st Century.

The total number of surface combat craft, now 457, would be pared to 116 by 1999, some 34 below current plans. Only the number of ballistic missile submarines--now pegged at 22--would remain essentially unchanged.

Officials said Smith developed the plan in conjunction with Vice Adm. William Owens, a deputy chief of naval operations.