Navy delays OLF study

The Navy is delaying release of a preliminary study on locating an Outlying Landing Field in North Carolina or Virginia to coincide with a similar study for the Navy Joint Strike Fighter.

In a statement released Friday, the Navy confirmed rumors that had been circulating for about two weeks that there would be a change in course in the controversial and nearly decade-long process of finding a place for pilots to practice night aircraft carrier landings.

The study was initially expected this summer and now is expected in the spring of next year.

F/A-18 Super Hornet squadrons, two of which are to be based at Cherry Point beginning in 2013 with eight others at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., would use the OLF.

Three sites in Virginia and two in North Carolina in Gates and Camden counties are being considered by the Navy.

However, the General Assembly passed a bill earlier this year that prevents an OLF in North Carolina unless there is economic gain for the region and approval by residents.

There has been renewed interest in locating the OLF in Craven County, partially sparked by U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. However, a Craven County site is not currently being considered by the Navy and is not part of the study, called a draft environmental impact statement.

A Craven County site northeast of Vanceboro had been considered a decade ago, but the Navy rejected the site because of environmental reasons.

The Navy’s first choice, a site in Washington County, was eventually dismissed after a lawsuit by environmentalists and area residents was filed.

“The environmental planning which would lead to a decision to establish an OLF has been a challenging process,” the Navy release said. “Various delays have pushed the OLF timeline to the point that it will now coincide with the commencement of the EIS process for home-basing of the F-35C Navy Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). As NAS Oceana is the East Coast master jet base and the home for the F/A-18 C/D aircraft, the Navy will likely consider whether it should be identified as a potential candidate site for the JSF.”

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., 3rd district, and a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said as recently as last week that encroachment of NAS Oceana near Virginia Beach, Va., has compromised effective use of the base and it should probably be closed.

That was the initial conclusion of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure commission that was revised with some mitigation and politics.

The Navy statement said that including Joint Strike Fighter data in the OLF environmental impact study “will ensure the Navy incorporates all relevant factors in the analysis in a fiscally responsible manner,” and that the National Environmental Policy Act process will keep both the Navy and the public informed and the process transparent.

Gates and Camden county anti-OLF forces were quick with comments on where they think this change should lead.

 “We are hopeful the Navy will use this time to consider alternatives to Camden County based on the mounting evidence an OLF here would cause severe economic and environmental damage to northeast North Carolina,” said Randall Woodruff, Camden County manager. “Now is the time to remove these sites from consideration.”

Hugh Overholt, spokesman for Allies for Cherry Point Tomorrow, a lobby group for the base, said he thought the move to delay the study could prompt an entirely new one.

He also said, based on similar previous situations, that the Navy would probably consider basing options other than Oceana for its Super Hornets and Joint Strike Fighters that could include Cherry Point as well as possibly Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro or Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.

“I bet they are bounding out a new platform at the Pentagon right now, if it’s not already decided, for basing East Coast airplanes like the Air Force and Navy Joint Strike Fighters and the Marine V-STOL version,” Overholt said.