Every single member of the Florida congressional delegation united on Monday to urge the Pentagon to homeport an aircraft carrier at Mayport on the First Coast.
Florida’s two U.S. senators--Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio--and all 27 representatives in the U.S. House signed on a letter sent to U.S. Defense Sec. James Mattis and acting U.S. Navy Sec. Sean Stackey in support of moving a carrier to Mayport.
“As you continue your work on the fiscal year 2018 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD), we urge you to include the funding necessary to complete the U.S. Navy’s stated requirements for strategic dispersal of capital ships by making Naval Station Mayport capable of homeporting a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN),” the delegation wrote. “While we understand the realities of the fiscal environment, our Navy overleverages risk to our carrier fleet by having only one CVN homeport on the Eastern seaboard. Not only are our operational CVN in jeopardy, but our future capital ships under construction are practically co-located, risking tens of billions of dollars of assets as well as our ability to project power abroad now and in the future.”
The Florida delegation noted that there had been several recommendations from the Navy to base a carrier at Mayport in recent years.
“The Navy conducted a multi-year review process for developing CVN operational, maintenance, and support facilities and carefully weighed the strategic, operational, and environmental consequences before making its decision to bring CVN to Mayport as early as 2019,” the Florida delegation wrote. “Despite these review processes, acknowledgment from senior leaders of the need for strategic dispersal, and multiple Government Accountability Office reports, this vital need is still unfulfilled.
“Mayport is an ideal location because it offers strategic and operational value that enhances our national security posture,” they continued. “In addition to John F. Kennedy, it has been home to Atlantic Fleet carriers Shangri-La, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Forrestal, and Saratoga. We implore you to no longer defer resource allocations needed for Mayport to continue its service to the carrier fleet.
“Strategic dispersal of our capital ships is a long held Navy requirement,” the Florida delegation concluded. “The risks to our current and future carrier fleet far exceed the one-time costs of making Mayport CVN capable. We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to working with you to ensure the Department of Defense budget reflects the urgency of finally ensuring there is no longer a single point of failure in our eastern seaboard nuclear carrier homeporting strategy.”
While the actors have changed, this is not a new issue on Capitol Hill. In recent years, two Republican congressmen who are now out of the House--Ander Crenshaw of Florida and Randy Forbes of Virginia--clashed on the issue.
Back in 2011, the House Armed Services Committee voted to gut funding that was allocated for improvements Mayport needs in order to house a carrier. Forbes, who at the time chaired the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and who was looking to ensure Norfolk would be the only naval base on the East Coast with a nuclear carrier, crowed that slashing $30 million in funding from Mayport would help the Old Dominion.
Crenshaw fired back, noting that Pentagon officials maintained America needed two ports for nuclear carriers on the Atlantic seaboard. While Mayport has traditionally housed aircraft carriers, there have not been any stationed there since 2007, when the USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned.
After sixteen years in Congress, Crenshaw decided not to run for another term last year. Forbes wasn’t so lucky. In a nasty primary back in June, former Navy SEAL Scott Taylor beat Forbes 52 percent to 40 percent. While there had been talk that Forbes could end up as secretary of the Navy in the Trump administration, he was passed over and is now a senior fellow at the Naval War College.
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