Panel Votes for Destroyers Over Sub
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee has voted to delete funding for the Trident submarine in next year’s budget and use that $1.4 billion to build two Aegis destroyers instead, lawmakers disclosed Wednesday.
Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.) said the House Armed Services sea power subcommittee voted in a closed session Tuesday to cut out all Trident funding for fiscal 1989, a move pushed by Rep. Charles E. Bennett (D-Fla.).
Bennett, chairman of the subcommittee, opposes a Reagan Administration plan to sell two Aegis DDG-51 destroyers to Japan, fearing that the United States would lose technology secrets.
Under the funding plan approved by the subcommittee, the government would order five Aegis warships in 1989. The Administration had requested three. The two extra ships would be deployed in Japan under U.S. control, protecting Japanese security interests while keeping the Aegis technology under wraps.
Gejdenson noted that the sea power panel deleted funding for the Trident two years ago, but funding was later restored by Congress.
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