By Peter Galuszka
Barack Obama’s nearly $500 billion in budget cuts are certain to impact Virginia.
It’s only fair, of course, that if Obama is going to join the chorus of (largely Republican and often hysterical) budget cutters, then the military should be included. After all, we haven’t even begun paying yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan even if the former was unnecessary and disastrous. Everything else, aid to the poor, education, medical care, is on the block.
Most of the cuts appear to be aimed at the Army and Marine Corps, which did most of the fighting in South Asia. Perhaps that makes sense since there’s no similar war on terrorism on the horizon, not that one might be easily foreseen.
But there are some major, big ticket items whose value might be questionable. None is used directly by the Marines or Army and
some have a major footprint in Virginia.
Topping the list is large, nuclear-powered warships. These, of course, are made at Newport News shipbuilding, which is the only yard in the country capable of making nuclear-powered surface warships. It makes its fair share of submarines, too.
The U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, now under construction at Newport News, costs about $13.5 billion. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can carry about 100 aircraft and is due in service in 2015. It has created thousands of jobs in the Tidewater area, but it has some question marks.
For projecting power, there’s nothing better. The aircraft carrier came into its own in World War II, replacing the battleship as the fleet’s most important surface vessel. For a half a century aircraft carriers have been the most visible part of the Navy, although nuclear-powered submarines have much more stealth firepower.
During the most recent wars, the limits of aircraft carriers became evident. Its short-range aircraft were hard-pressed to sustain strikes within land-locked Afghanistan unless the Navy could organize complicated aerial refueling.
The most likely enemy of the future is China, and maybe Iran. The Chinese have been experimenting with a new ballistic missile whose major task is to explode on the crowded, munitions filled decks of American aircraft carriers. The missiles could hit targets 2,000 miles away. That would keep Navy strike aircraft about at the limits of their range.
Another big ticket item is the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, a sleek-looking stealth jet fighter. Langley Air Force Base, has a number of F-22s which are designed as interceptors. Unfortunately, they were planned to counter advanced Soviet jet fighters and are somehow jobless since the Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore. They proved useless in fighting Saddam’s forces in Iraq or the cave-dwelling Taliban in Afghanistan. They cost
$150 million a plane.
That’s also the approximate price tag for the F-35, a new jet fighter that is capable of hovering and taking off vertically. It had been planned for the Air Force, Navy and Marines, but faces cuts as planners wonder if updated but older model F-15s, F-16s or F-18s can continue doing the job just as effectively. The F-35 already has been a pork barrel item since Virginia politicians lead by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wanted Rolls Royce to be the second maker of its engines. Rolls’ American operations are based in Virginia, which explains Cantor’s pork. The Pentagon was perfectly happy with a sole engine supplier (not Rolls). Now, a lot fewer F-35s may be built which will impact both Langley and Oceana Naval Air Station. Meanwhile, unmanned drones are coming into their own as powerful and much cheaper alternatives to traditional military aircraft.
It isn’t clear whether the many high tech, military software firms in Northern Virginia will be cut back. Apparently, Navy SEALs based at Little Creek and Dam Neck will be boosted given Obama’s plan to keep a
keen counter-terrorism force. SEAL teams, however, are few in number and don’t use many resources. Their impact on the Virginia economy is probably limited to bar tabs during Happy Hour on Shore Drive.
In any event, defense will be cut and Virginia is going to feel the pain.
