CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Gov. Linda Lingle joined acting Secretary of the Navy Hansford Johnson yesterday in a tour of the USS Lake Erie. During the tour, they were briefed on the cruiser's latest mission in the combat information center and discussed efforts to reconsider how ships are being deployed.
Navy chief and gov
visit isle troopsThe acting secretary discusses efforts to
reconsider how ships are being deployed
The acting civilian head of the Navy said Pentagon planners may have to rethink how to deploy warships because of the Iraqi war.
Hansford Johnson, acting secretary of the Navy, told reporters in Honolulu yesterday that it may be wiser to keep fewer warships deployed in the Persian Gulf and the western Pacific as long as the United States can move several of them, including aircraft carriers, to a trouble spot on short notice.
"(Defense) Secretary Rumsfeld and all of his senior leaders are looking very carefully at what forces we need forward and where we need them," Johnson said. "He recognizes that if we have everything forward, we don't have anything to reinforce with. So I think you will see fewer forward forces, but with the capability to reinforce them anywhere in the world."
Because the Navy sent seven carriers to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, they have to return for repair and maintenance and crew retraining, which could take more than a year, leaving fewer carriers available in the event of another conflict.
Military planners have said that if the Navy switches to what is called "surge operations," it could move at least half of its 12-carrier fleet to any place in the world.
Johnson, a retired Air Force general, spent a day visiting sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor and Marine Corps Base Hawaii before returning to the mainland last night. Johnson toured the cruiser USS Lake Erie with Gov. Linda Lingle and had lunch with some of its 400 sailors.
At Lake Erie's combat information center, Johnson and Lingle were briefed on the cruiser's latest mission, which is to be a test platform in the Navy's ballistic missile defense program.
Capt. Scott Anhalt, the Lake Erie's commanding officer, said the cruiser is the only vessel in the Navy capable of intercepting missiles. Anhalt said the Lake Erie completed three successful intercepts during tests at Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility.
On five wall-size monitors in the warship's combat center, Anhalt replayed the late November tests where the Lake Erie tracked and destroyed an Aries ballistic missile fired from Barking Sands on Kauai and an experimental SM-3 missile launched from the deck of the cruiser.
Johnson will remain as acting secretary until the Senate confirms the permanent appointment of Colin McMillan, 67, of Roswell, N.M.
On Saturday, Johnson presented the Navy's highest civilian award to former first lady Nancy Reagan at an Armed Forces Day ceremony near Los Angeles attended by sailors and Marines who will serve on the aircraft carrier named after former President Ronald Reagan.
The 1,092-foot carrier will be commissioned July 12 in Norfolk, Va.
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