The Nation - News from May 29, 1989

The Bush Administration is planning to change the mix of airplanes and helicopters assigned to aircraft carriers, resulting in a Navy-wide loss of one full carrier’s worth of aircraft, according to a study by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Rep. George J. Hochbrueckner (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, requested the study as part of efforts by him and Long Island’s four other congressmen to save the F-14D jet fighter, which was cut from the 1990 budget by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. The F-14D Tomcat is manufactured by Grumman Corp. in Bethpage, N.Y. Ronald O’Rourke, the naval analyst who prepared the study, said he learned that the Navy is planning to switch in the 1990s from a combination of aircraft carrier configurations to a standardized “transitional” air wing, for a reduction of 126 to 128 aircraft.