Rebalance security and environmental needs

Sea Power, Aug 2003 by McNeill, Shiela M

Our sea services urgently need the support of the public and Congress to resolve a difficult and potentially dangerous problem. Critical defense development and training programs are being delayed or curtailed as our nation approaches a turning point in the war on terrorism.

The Navy and Marine Corps are besieged by over-zealous environmentalists that have employed vaguely-written regulations to delay or cancel key weapon development programs, severely reduce the size of usable military training areas and diminish the opportunities for realistic training.

For example, deployment of an advanced sonar system has been delayed for more than six years because of unproved assertions that it will damage marine mammal populations. This sonar-the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System, Low Frequency Active, or SURTASS LFA-would substantially improve the Navy's ability to detect quiet diesel-electric submarines of the type deployed by North Korea and Iran. Locating those subs is a top Navy priority.

At Camp Pendleton, Calif., only one mile of the 17-mile beach is available to practice amphibious landings using all Marine Corps combat vehicles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to designate critical habitat on 65 percent of the space at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif. and on 56 percent of Camp Pendleton, Calif. Those lands would then be off-limits to military training.

The story gets worse. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in October 2002 to designate large tracts of military land on Guam as a critical habitat to protect endangered species such as the Mariana fruit bat and the Micronesian kingfisher. However, none of the species to be protected is present on Navy land on Guam.

There is a grievous imbalance between our need to protect our environment and our national security. Adm. Walter F. Doran, commander of the Pacific Fleet, stated last July that "in this time of war, vital Navy training is being delayed, curtailed and canceled" partly because regulatory agencies are invoking the "precautionary principle" that defense organizations accused of environmental misdeeds are guilty until proven innocent. Far worse are special interest groups that attempt to portray the Navy and Marine Corps as environmental predators.

Over the years, the Navy and Marine Corps have been excellent stewards of our environment. Their two million acres of land are home to about 185 threatened and endangered species that are protected by 130 full-time natural resources specialists. The Naval Air Station, Key West, Fla., has made Herculean efforts to nurture the endangered population of the Lower Key marsh rabbit. Wood storks are thriving at Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay, thanks to the Navy's enlargement of their habitat and rookery. The Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla., last year was the proud winner of an Audubon Society Environmental Award because of its work with the Osprey population. Those marvelous darting seabirds, the marbled murrelets, are doing wonderfully at the naval station in Jim Creek, Wash., and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., has teamed up with environmental organizations to foster population growth of the Indiana bat, the bobcat, and the bald eagle.

That same diligence and care have been applied to the development of SURTASS LFA. To ascertain the feasibility of safely deploying this sonar system, the Navy in 1997 funded a $10 million independent research program by scientists at Cornell University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. They concluded it would not adversely affect marine mammal populations over time. The National Marine Fisheries Service agreed with that conclusion in May 2002. To further protect marine mammals, the Navy would alter the operation of the sonar under certain conditions. Nonetheless, the testing of SURTASS LFA is restricted by court order.

Environmental protection laws have played a key role in national efforts in recent years to clean the air we breathe and the water we drink. Organizations such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Audubon Society are partly responsible for the comeback of the bald eagle, the American alligator and the peregrine falcon. We applaud those achievements and support their goals.

However, it would be foolish to continue the endangerment of our national security in the name of environmental protection. These are perilous times. Our military forces recently drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and routed the treacherous regime in Baghdad. Many of the al Qaeda's leadership have been eliminated. Others were captured and have found it convenient to talk about the whereabouts and future plans of their fellow terrorists.

These are among the events that have brought us to a turning point in the war on terrorism. The top ranks of the al Qaeda have been weakened. This murderous organization can be crushed, given the requisite skill and determination.

To make that happen, and to train for other eventualities, our forces must continue to prepare for the kaleidoscopic array of asymmetric threats that will confront them. There is no doubt that military training disrupts the environment. War is a violent enterprise. But in recent months we have witnessed the extraordinary national benefits of maintaining a well-trained force that prepares for our defense in areas carefully selected and set aside for that purpose. Our nation needs forces that are humane and highly skilled and fight with the precision that Americans expect.