"Why do we need submarines as opposed to the surface navy? Well, sometimes you want to show the flag, to let the other guy see you and think about how much firepower you have off his coast… and when that happens you send in a carrier battle group. But sometimes you don't want him to see you. You want to lurk off his coast or even slip inside his harbors to see what he's up to or tap into his submarine communications cables or drop off a team of SEALs, and for that you need a submersible, a very quiet submersible.
"As for who our enemies are going to be twenty years from now… or even next month, how the hell do we know? Iran was our bosom buddy in the seventies until their revolution turned them from ally to enemy. Five years later we were covertly helping out Saddam Hussein because Iraq was fighting Iran, and eight years after that we were at war with Iraq. The political situation throughout the world is always changing, and between global terrorism, high-seas piracy, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Navy might find itself going into harm's way anywhere, at any time. A nuke or a bioterror warhead in the hands of a nation like… what country did you say a while ago? Lithuania. A nuke in Lithuania is just as dangerous, just as destabilizing, just as threatening as the same warhead in China.
"And, damn it, sir, to expect our fleet of L.A. boats to continue operations into the 2020s is like expecting today's Navy to continue employing World War II diesel boats. It's dangerous, it's ineffective, it's shortsighted, and it's stupid. We need the Virginia, and we need the boats that will follow her."
"But the Los Angeles-class subs will function quite well for the next ten years or so, Commander. And by then, we'll have even better technology. The Virginia and her sister units will be as obsolete as the Los Angeles, and the Navy will be looking to build still another high-tech and high-cost submarine! Am I right? Why not wait until then?"
Garrett waved an arm at a group of workers on the scaffolding overhead. "They're the reason why, at least in part.
"You know, Congressman, they say we're farther away, right now, today, from putting another man on the moon, than we were back in 1960 when Kennedy challenged us to a manned landing within the decade. The reason is that after the Apollo program was cancelled in the seventies, the team of engineers and technicians and trained construction workers who worked on Apollo had been scattered to the four winds.
"Well, sir, just like with Apollo, it takes years of work to design a new submarine, and years more of construction before the lead boat of a class is launched. That construction requires a small army of highly skilled and experienced workers. Without an ongoing series coming off the ways, that work force will be broken up and lost, wasted. We can't build a new submarine class from a standing start overnight. As it is, the Virginia here is doing pretty well. The original NSSN-Centurion studies were done in 1990. Fifteen years from initial cost and feasibility studies to commissioning is pretty damned good in anybody's book."
They continued to walk through the cavernous expanse of the assembly building. Blakeslee was quiet for a long time.
"Excellent speech, Commander," he said. "I wonder if I could lure you into a new career as my speech-writer."
"I'm happy as a sub driver, sir."
"Just kidding. I do appreciate your candor. You, my friend, face danger every time you set sail in one of those sealed coffins. I face danger of a different sort. One of the worst is that everyone tells me what they think I'd like to hear… not what I need to hear. Right now, the U.S. submarine program is in such an unholy tangle of turf wars and budget battles… I don't think anyone in Washington is seeing more than his or her tiny patch of ground. And you know as well as I do… the Navy's procurement office is as politically oriented as we are up on the Hill."
"Yes, sir. It leaves us working stiffs kind of caught in the middle sometimes."
"I can well imagine. What I'm interested in here today, Commander, is how you 'working stiffs,' as you put it, feel about the Virginia. Do you see her as a boondoggle? Politics as usual? Or is she a useful addition to the fleet?" He held up a cautioning hand. "I don't want the Navy's party line, Commander. What do you think?"
Garrett thought about that one for a moment. "Sir, I see her as a necessary, as a damned vital addition to the fleet. I do believe she's already the product of too many compromises, and I think those compromises will come back to haunt us. But the Los Angeles boats are aging, and we'll be striking a few of them every year from now on. We have three Seawolf SSNs… and the Carter was being modified as a deep-ocean research, search, and recovery special-mission submarine to replace the Parche before she was even launched. That leaves us with just two full-time Seawolf boats. Right now, the Virginia is all we have." He thought for a moment. "Congressman, we might not know who our future enemies are going to be, but we do know that the Navy's future battleground is going to be the third world littorals, shallow and hemmed-in waters in places like the Yellow Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and the Eastern Med. Places that sane submarine skippers dread like rush hour on the Washington Beltway. Yes, sir, we need the Virginia, and at least thirty more like her."
Blakeslee chuckled. "Well, I can't promise the thirty more, Commander. In fact, I can just about guarantee that you're not going to get them. The question before my panel now is whether to fund more than the first four and, if so, how many." The tune of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" keened from the congressman's jacket pocket. He reached in and pulled out his cell phone. "Excuse me, Commander. Duty calls."
Garrett stepped away to give the congressman privacy. Jesus… was all that storm and bluster just his way to probe Garrett's heart and mind, to find out what he really thought? Scary notion, that such a powerful congressman could be that cynical, that untrusting of what others told him.
Blakeslee rejoined him a moment later, pocketing the phone. "I'm afraid the tour has to be curtailed for the moment, Commander. That was my aide, back at the visitors' center. Something's come up."
"I'll walk you back over there, sir."
"Thank you. And… thank you for your insight, Commander. It's given me something to think about."
"You're aware, aren't you, sir, that we call the Appropriations Committee 'Santa Claus'?"
"I wasn't aware, but it seems appropriate, somehow."
Garrett's mouth quirked. "Well, yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia. And we need those other boats. Desperately."
Blakeslee laughed. "I'll see what I can do, Commander. You'll need a damned big stocking for that many submarines, though. Tell me… are you looking forward to your new command?"
Garrett looked up at the sleek, unfinished hull suspended overhead. "Yes, sir. More than I've looked forward to anything in my life."
"Even if she's a compromise?"