geetrue
03-19-13, 10:46 PM
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2013/03/ap-navy-says-submarine-miami-repairs-uncertain-031813/
PORTLAND, Maine — The Navy’s commitment to repairing a nuclear submarine severely damaged by an arsonist last spring is wavering under the realities of mandatory budget cuts, officials say.
The Navy announced last summer that it intended to repair the Miami at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with a goal of returning it to service in 2015. The cost of repairing the vessel would be about $450 million, which the Navy said would be cost-effective because the 22-year-old submarine could serve another 10 years.
“The Navy needs every submarine in our inventory. Restoring Miami remains a high priority. But it necessarily must compete with other high naval priorities during this period of restricted budgets,” said Navy Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, commander of Submarine Group 2 in Groton, Conn.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s 4,700 civilian workers will be forced to take 22 days off without pay between April and the end of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30 under forced federal budget cuts.
Workers plan to rally Wednesday against the mandatory budget cuts.
Adding insult to injury for shipyard workers was another fire Monday aboard the submarine just three days after former shipyard worker Casey James Fury, 25, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for setting the fire that ravaged the USS Miami in dry dock at the Kittery shipyard during a 20-month overhaul.
PORTLAND, Maine — The Navy’s commitment to repairing a nuclear submarine severely damaged by an arsonist last spring is wavering under the realities of mandatory budget cuts, officials say.
The Navy announced last summer that it intended to repair the Miami at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with a goal of returning it to service in 2015. The cost of repairing the vessel would be about $450 million, which the Navy said would be cost-effective because the 22-year-old submarine could serve another 10 years.
“The Navy needs every submarine in our inventory. Restoring Miami remains a high priority. But it necessarily must compete with other high naval priorities during this period of restricted budgets,” said Navy Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, commander of Submarine Group 2 in Groton, Conn.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s 4,700 civilian workers will be forced to take 22 days off without pay between April and the end of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30 under forced federal budget cuts.
Workers plan to rally Wednesday against the mandatory budget cuts.
Adding insult to injury for shipyard workers was another fire Monday aboard the submarine just three days after former shipyard worker Casey James Fury, 25, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for setting the fire that ravaged the USS Miami in dry dock at the Kittery shipyard during a 20-month overhaul.