October 9th, 2009
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October 09, 2009, 6:59AM
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, right, and Northrop Grumman President Mike Petters make their way to a news conference after touring the company’s shipbuilding facility and U.S. Navy ships under construction Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, in Pascagoula, Miss. The Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Dewey is in the background.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said Thursday he has “a special place in my heart for Mississippi” and hopes the coastal area can benefit from his new position, but he also understands what his job is.
“My job is to help the Navy and the Marine Corps, but part of the way you do that is by maintaining your industrial bases,” said the former Mississippi governor who served as a surface warfare officer in the Navy aboard the cruiser Little Rock.
“Having competitive, well-run shipyards like Northrop Grumman” is a win-win for both the government and taxpayers, he said.
Mabus was at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding Thursday morning, touring ships and “shaking hands with all the shipbuilders,” NGS president Mike Petters said.
“The most impressive thing here is the work force,” Mabus said after the tour. “You’ve got third-, fourth- and fifth-generation shipbuilders here.”
Northrop Grumman is also an enormous benefit to the Navy’s industrial base, Mabus said.
“There are about 250 master shipbuilders here,” he said. “That means they’ve been working here … more than 40 years, which is an amazing thing. If you lose that, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to ever get it back.”
Mabus referenced a $20 million maritime training facility to be built on the west side of Jerry St. Pe Highway as a good potential resource for Northrop Grumman.
The federal funding for the training center was announced by the Mississippi Development Authority this summer.
Mabus toured two LPD 17-class amphibious transport dock ships, the San Diego (LPD 22) and Arlington (LPD 24), and two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyers, the Gravely (DDG 107) and Dewey (DDG 105), he said.
“These platforms allow the Navy to do amazingly flexible things,” such as Special Forces operations, missile work and humanitarian assistance, Mabus said.
In light of a flat defense budget, Mabus said, the Navy is moving toward ships whose technology can be easily updated.
“As technology changes, we can improve the technology on the ship: an open-architecture sort of building approach,” he said.
The goal, he said, is “don’t build too many different hull types, but do improve the technology.” This addresses the problem, he said, of “building ever more expensive, ever more exotic” vessels.
Upping the number of ships is a major focus, he said. The Navy currently has 285 ships; the aim is for 313.
Northrop Grumman is constructing LHA 6, the newest class of large-deck amphibious assault ships. The ship, named America, will replace the aging Tarawa class and is slated for completion in 2013.
Mabus said he is “a big fan of amphibious ships, and I hope that we always have the amphibious capabilities that we need.”
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