Answers to Submarine Q.O.T.W. from AUG 11, 2016

Related information, photo(s) and links for questions are found in the original posting. 

Questions of the Week (Q.O.T.W.) with ANSWERS

1 - Which, if any, of the 5 closures on the SecDef's 2005 hit list were major naval installations?
ANSWER:  Two - (1) Naval Submarine Base New London and, (2) Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

2 - Which, if any, of the major naval installations on the SecDef's 2005 hit list were submarine related installations?   ANSWER:  Originally, Naval Submarine Base New London and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, but both were later removed from the original closure list. [ibid]

3 - How many members are appointed to serve on the BRAC Commission?  ANSWER: The latest (2005) Defense Base Closure and Realignments Commission (BRAC) was comprised of 9-members.  [ibid.]

4 - Who chaired the 2005 BRAC Commission?  ANSWER:  Anthony Principi 

5 - When did a SecDef last seek a new BRAC Commission, and who was he?  ANSWER:  On March 2015,  Defense secretary Ashton Carter directed his (acting) Asst. Secretary of Defense, John Conger to request authority for another BRAC during Congressional testimony.  

6 - What high ranking Navy appointee spoke very recently of a new BRAC round?   ANSWER:  Navy Seretary Ray Mabus was quoted August 9th as supporting another Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round.   

 7 -  State officials recently claimed that there are national security interests in keeping waterways clear for the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., and U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.  What state expressed such a claim, and in what context was that claim made?  ANSWER: Connecticut, of course, made the national security claim to defend its controversial plan to relocate dredged materials into New York state Long Island Sound.    

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Submarine QOTW 11 AUG 2016

Background

BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is the federal government's method of assuring Department of Defense efficiency in use and upkeep of U.S. military installations. More than 350 installations have been closed in five BRAC rounds since 1988.  The current process was created in 1988 to reduce pork barrel politics when facilities in Congress's home states face reduction.

The most recent process began in May 2005, when the U.S. Secretary of Defense forwarded his recommendations for realignments and closures to the  BRAC Commission.  The BRAC Commission removed 5 major installations from the Secretary of Defenses's closure list.

Questions of the Week

1 - Which, if any, of the 5 closures on the SecDef's 2005 hit list were major naval installations?

2 - Which, if any, of the major naval installations on the SecDef's 2005 hit list were submarine related installations?

3 - How many members are appointed to serve on the BRAC Commission?

4 - Who chaired the 2005 BRAC Commission?

5 - When did a SecDef last seek a new BRAC Commission, and who was he.

6 - What high ranking Navy appointee also spoke recently of a new BRAC round?

7 -  State officials recently claimed that there are national security interests in keeping waterways clear for the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., and U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.  What state expressed such a claim, and in what context was that claim made? 

ANSWERS:  Monday, 15 August

Submarines are always silemt and strange.

Submarine Quote of the Month (August 2016)

Background 

“It’s very clear (the Defense Department) as a whole has excess capacity, you need something to shrink that,” said Mabus in an interview with the Connecticut Mirror. “I’m sure we’d have something (on the base-closure list), but I don’t know what that would be.”

He said all Navy facilities, including sub bases like the one in New London, would be scrutinized in a new BRAC round, but he indicated the impact on the Navy and Marine Corps would be less severe than on the Army or Air Force.

Submarine Quote of the Month

Washington —

“The last BRAC round was in 2004, and the first several years I was here, I was still writing checks for that,” Mabus said. “If you are going to do something like this, you have to be more the ‘C’ than just the ‘R.’  If you just realign, it’s going to take a long time to save money…you actually have to close things.”  - Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, "Outgoing Navy secretary still urging a base-closing round",  Connecticut Mirror,  August 9, 2016.

Braggadocio [exaggerated talk of someone trying to sound very proud]

Mabus set a Navy goal of 308 battle force ships, consisting of aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious, combat logistics, and support ships. That plan includes an increase of 10 Virginia-class attack submarines built by Electric Boat. The fleet today numbers 273 ships and subs.

“When I got here the fleet was declining, declining precipitously,” said Mabus, who took the reins of the Navy in 2009.  [implying the U.S. Navy is declining no longer]

Questions of the Week

1 - When did the U.S. Navy's fleet last have 273 ships?  1930 (eleven years before WW2)
2 - When did the U.S. Navy's fleet last have 308 ships?  1931 (ten years before WW2).
3 - Did Secretary Mabus brag in hopes of a future Democrat Navy Secretary naming a naval combatant the USS Ray Mabus?

Submarines are always silent and strange.