Underfunded Navy keeps sailors in port

San Diego Union-Tribune:

A serious Navy cash crunch is threatening to leave sailors in San Diego and across the fleet stranded ashore, unable to change duty stations and without the bonuses that have long encouraged them to stay in uniform.

In recent weeks, Navy officials have instituted a series of austerity measures to reduce costs or postpone them until the next fiscal year, which begins Oct 1. The expense trimming includes:

Cutting at-sea time for nondeployed ships by about one-third and decreasing flight hours for carrier air wings by an unspecified amount.

Reducing or eliminating the ships sent to promotional “Fleet Week” events in San Diego and other cities.

Delaying “permanent change of station” transfers for 14,000 sailors who had expected to move this summer.

Eliminating most re-enlistment bonuses effective this month.

Some of the steps are designed to help close a projected $417 million shortage in ship maintenance funds this year. Military and congressional sources said the shortfall occurred because maintenance money for Navy surface ships hasn't kept pace with a 19 percent increase in those ships' operations since 2002.

Repairs stemming from recent accidents involving the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship New Orleans, attack submarine Hartford and cruiser Port Royal could push the deficit higher. The bill for the Port Royal, which ran aground Feb. 5 near Honolulu, is estimated at $163 million.

Defense analysts said the budget problem isn't unique to the Navy; it has become a perennial one for the Pentagon. Last year, legislators had to pump nearly $1 billion into the operations and maintenance accounts of the four military services – including $180 million for Navy ships and aircraft – in a midyear supplement to the Pentagon budget.

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The Navy's cutbacks are being felt in a variety of ways.

Surface ships will remain tethered to their piers for more days. Their sailors and aircraft crews will undergo more training with simulators instead of taking to the sea or sky.

Ships that do hit the waves will use fewer generators and only one propeller on twin-screw vessels, Navy officials said. Aircraft carriers and submarines, which run on nuclear power, won't be affected.

“Across the fleet, we do have to find that reduction,” said Cmdr. Dora Lockwood, a spokeswoman for the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet. “We're looking at opportunities to get our ships ready through other types of training.”

Navy officials refused to say how much the cuts are designed to save. They also denied a request for data comparing fuel usage and at-sea time for 3rd Fleet ships and aircraft.

But they did say the cuts are focused on units at home on training cycles while largely sparing those deployed to combat zones. Four San Diego-based Navy ships and a helicopter squadron are in the Middle East as part of the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group.

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At a time when Congress is spending a trillion dollars on Democrat boondoggles to "stimulate" the economy, it is ridiculous that it is not funding the maintenance of the Navy's war fighting capacity. This is far more important than the priorities Obama has chosen. It is also foolishly shortsighted.

Spending on the military has always been a better stimulous than the boondoggle programs of liberals.