Jacksonville Ranch Club—11/17/2008—Navy OKs Mayport For Nuclear Carrier
11/17/2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After a year-long study of whether a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier could be stationed at Mayport Naval Station, the secretary of the Navy told members of Florida's congressional delegation Monday that a carrier will be moved to the base within five years.
"We are full steam ahead: Jacksonville is going to have a nuclear carrier," U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, said.
The decision to house a new carrier at Mayport was one of 13 options being considered by the Navy to strategically disperse its carrier fleet and came after an environmental impact study completed last month reportedly said there is no barrier to upgrading Mayport to house a nuclear-powered carrier.
That report is to be made public on Friday.
"This is tremendous news for Florida and testament to the strategic importance of Mayport," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. "It is vital that our nation maintain more than one substantial naval base on the East Coast."
"Getting all of the nuclear carriers out of one port in Virginia is in our national security interest," said Nelson. "For the folks in Florida the move is certain to bolster the role of Mayport and help the local economy."
The move will bring an additional 3,190 military personnel to Mayport, which has been without a carrier since the decommissioning of the USS John F. Kennedy in March 2007.
"This is going to mean a lot of jobs and a tremendous future for Mayport -- a future that now can be very secure," Martinez said Monday.
Nelson, Martinez, Rep. Ander Crenshaw and others in Florida's congressional delegation have lobbied for the Navy to assign a new carrier to Mayport, both to replace the jobs lost when the JFK was retired and to avoid homeporting all East Coast carriers at Norfolk -- cited as a national security threat.
"Today's announcement is a huge victory for Mayport, northeast Florida, and for U.S. national security," said Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville. "The decision to bring a nuclear carrier to Mayport reinforces that Jacksonville is a premier military community."
Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter will ask the Defense Department to include funds in next fiscal year's budget to begin upgrading facilities in Mayport to berth a nuclear-powered carrier, Nelson said. Those upgrades -- estimated to cost $300 to $500 million -- are estimated to take five years.
"The Navy's decision to permanently homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Mayport Naval Station is tremendous news for the city of Jacksonville and its treasured military community," Mayor John Peyton said in a statement.
Nelson said the Navy will likely announce in four years which carrier would be relocated, so the personnel and their families can prepare for the move.
Martinez said he is hopeful that the Navy's newest carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, will ultimately be assigned to Mayport. It is scheduled to be commissioned early next year.
"To designate the home port of that particular ship to Jacksonville I think would be a great tribute to our former president, and it would a very nice thing for Gov. Jeb Bush to have that home ported in the state where he used to be the governor," Martinez said. "I would be great to have the newest nuclear carrier to be home ported at Mayport."
The move naval assets away from Norfolk faced opposition from powerful leaders in Virginia, but Nelson said Navy could not overlook the national security implications of this decision.
"Although there have been sharp elbows between the Florida delegation and the Virginia delegation, at the end of the day, the decision was clear," Nelson said. "It was in the interest of national security to put a nuclear carrier not in Norfolk, but elsewhere, and the logical place was Mayport."
