WASHINGTON – Rep. Jo Bonner took on critics of the U.S. Navy’s prototypes of the Littoral Combat Ship in a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing earlier this week.
Presently, there are two separate versions of this ship – a steel-hulled version built by Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, in Marinette, Wis. and an aluminum trimaran version from Australian shipbuilder Austal built at its Austal USA facilities in Mobile.
But it’s the Mobile-built prototype that means a lot to the Alabama economy.
Dr. Donald Epley, the director of the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell College of Business Real Estate Studies Center, estimates the most recent Austal contract with the U.S. Navy, valued at $5 billion, already has or will create 4,800 new jobs for Mobile and Washington Counties with a total economic impact of over $402 million. For the whole state of Alabama, the figure rises to 6,726 jobs and a total economic impact of nearly $713 million. And at a national level, Epley estimated 11,214 jobs have been or will be created with a total economic impact of over $2.2 billion as a result of that $5 billion contract.
“The timing of these impacts depends on the speed at which Austal spends the money,” Epley told Yellowhammer.
But during the hearing earlier this week, Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Mobile) fended off criticisms from both committee chair New Jersey Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen and Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, who questioned the ship on the grounds of where it fits in with the modern U.S. Navy and it’s constant need for maintenance, especially in a time when the military is face budget cuts due to sequestration.
“I want to invite [Moran] and everyone on this subcommittee to Mobile, where one of these two ships are being built,” Bonner said. “Now I would challenge you, if you have not seen it, then you would be better informed about this issue. And it is important and I say that with all due respect because [Moran] is a friend. And I think we ought to go to Wisconsin and Mississippi and Virginia where our military vessels are being built. I think that’s something that we haven’t done enough of, with all due respect Mr. Chairman, to see boots on the ground of the industrial base and we often times talk about.
Bonner had an ally as a witness before that committee in Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who described the LCS class as “one of our best performing programs” and said it was “absolutely essential for the Pacific.”
Wednesday, the future-USS Coronado, officially called the LCS-4 departed Mobile with very little fanfare. It was second of the Mobile-built prototypes to leave the Austal USA facilities in the port city.
Jeff Poor is the media reporter for the Washington, D.C.-based Daily Caller. He is also a columnist for Mobile-based Lagniappe and a Yellowhammer contributor. He is a graduate of both Auburn University and the University of South Alabama.
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