By Emelie Rutherford
Raymond Mabus–the Navy secretary nominee who told lawmakers yesterday he is ready to tackle acquisition reform–may face at least a temporary delay in his confirmation because of the battle over where to homeport an aircraft carrier.
After Mabus’ Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) confirmation hearing, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) said he was not satisfied with the nominee’s answers to his questions on the Pentagon review of a recent Navy decision to homeport a nuclear carrier in Mayport, Fla. Martinez, the ranking member of the SASC Seapower subcommittee, was pleased with the Navy’s January decision, which, if executed, would bolster his state’s economy.
“I have some questions that (Mabus) hasn’t answered for me to my satisfaction,” Martinez told Defense Daily. “I’m going to follow up with written questions regarding…strategic dispersal of the nuclear fleet….I’m not ready to vote for his confirmation or have it come to the floor until I get some better answers.”
Martinez tried unsuccessfully during the hearing to prompt Mabus to say if he agreed or disagreed with the three past chiefs of naval operations in their support for dispersing the carrier force on the East Coast.
Mabus and Robert Work, President Obama’s nominee for Navy under secretary, both declined during yesterday’s hearing to share opinions on the Mayport decision, noting it is being reviewed in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
“If confirmed I expect to be an active member of that review and I commit to making this a priority item,” Mabus said.
SASC member Jim Webb (D-Va.), a former Regan-era Navy secretary who wants the carrier based in Norfolk, Va., criticized the Navy’s now-under-review Mayport decision at yesterday’s hearing. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) joined Martinez in advocating for homeporting a nuclear carrier in their state.
Levin after the hearing said Mabus has a “very excellent chance of being confirmed,” and noted that the Mayport decision will be made following the QDR.
“He’s not going to make a commitment on the outcome of that review and I would just hope that all the senators who have a state interest in that would accept his fairness and his objectivity,” Levin told reporters at the Capitol.
Levin noted the Pentagon is seeking funding in next year’s budget for improvements at the Florida port, which he said should “reassure folks that it’s still not a closed issue.”
During the hearing, Mabus told SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) that one of his “areas of intense concentration and focus” will be improving the acquisition process, for both new and existing systems.
“The acquisition process has to be gotten under control or we’re going to unilaterally disarm ourselves,” Mabus said. “We (should) begin to match up requirements with resources and make sure that our technology is mature before proceeding, stabilize the requirements for ships and aircraft during the manufacturing process, and have fair and adequate contract going forward.”
McCain, for his part, said Navy aircraft and the Littoral Combat Ship “have had dramatic and really terrible cost overruns.”
The Navy’s acquisition process, Mabus said, “far too often overpromises and underprices, breaks–sometimes spectacularly–budgets and schedules, ups requirements while lowering quantities, and resists accountability.”
The nominee called for more stability of requirements in the Navy’s shipbuilding program.
“I think you should look at, if new technologies come along, building ships in blocks so that the next block of ships can be upgraded in terms of technology, but not trying to make the ships that are currently under construction be the most perfect ships that you can have,” Mabus said.
Mabus served as Mississippi governor from 1988 to 1992, ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996, and chairman and chief executive officer of manufacturing firm Foamex from 2006 to 2007.
Work, the vice president of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, served for 27 years in the Marine Corps, where his last assignment was military assistant and senior aide to former Clinton administration Navy Secretary Richard Danzig.
Work is vying for the spot of Navy undersecretary, which has been vacant since the departure of Dino Aviles in December 2006. If confirmed, Work would be the first undersecretary who concurrently serves as chief management officer (CMO). Levin said lawmakers created the CMO position in 2007 “out of frustration with the inability of the military departments to modernize their business systems and processes.”
Work said as CMO he would, as Levin said, “make the modernization of the Navy’s business systems processes a top priority.”
Mabus and Work both praised the “intent” of Levin and McCain’s extensive acquisition-reform bill. Yet Work said he needed to learn more about a provision intended to thwart organizational conflicts of interest in defense companies.