U.S. Congressional hearing session
15:29 (Washington Time)
Monday, August 23, 1995 ‘C’
Aircraft carrier U.S.S. NEPTUNE (under construction)
Covered Drydock Number One, Roanoke Shipyards
Virginia, U.S.A.
President Ross Perot opened wide his eyes when he was able to see the true size of the aircraft carrier’s aircraft hangar from his position in the narrow, elevated observation gallery, which was situated halfway down the 410-meter-long hangar.
‘’My god! This hangar is truly huge! Is this the norm in our other carriers?’’
‘’Hardly, Mister President.’’ replied Michael Ferranti, who was guiding Perot, Admiral Klasser and Ingrid Dows around the nearly completed U.S.S. NEPTUNE. ‘’The aircraft hangar of the U.S.S. NEPTUNE actually has three times the deck surface of the hangar in our NIMITZ-Class carriers. It can comfortably shelter up to sixty aircraft, along with a wide centerline circulation lane that facilitates the moving of aircraft around the hangar. In case of severe weather, an additional twenty aircraft or more can be lowered from the flight deck and sheltered in this hangar, to avoid having them damaged by large waves and hurricane-strength winds. In contrast, our NIMITZ-Class carriers have to keep the majority of its aircraft on the flight deck, due to their constricted hangars. That in turn makes their aircraft highly vulnerable to enemy fire of any kind and to strong storms. Despite the huge size of its hangar and of its external dimensions, the U.S.S. NEPTUNE displaces less tonnage than a NIMITZ-Class carrier, thanks to its modified SWATH hull, which is much leaner than that of the NIMITZ. The other important difference with our previous classes of carriers is its very heavy and powerful armament, which allows the NEPTUNE to cruise around without the need for an escort flotilla. It can also augment the offensive power provided by its embarked aircraft with its missile battery, which uses a new model of our vertical launch system, or VLS. If you would like, Mister President, we could go have a look at the ship’s VLS battery once we are back on top of the flight deck.’’
‘’I am certainly interested in looking at it, Mister Ferranti. What’s next?’’
‘’General Dows proposed earlier to me to show you the various crew facilities, which she pushed hard to be improved compared to the present standards, especially when they apply to enlisted sailors. Know that every member of the crew and every embarked marine has an individual cabin on this ship.’’
That attracted an incredulous look from Ross Perot.
‘’Everyone has its own cabin?’’
‘’Yes, Mister President, although the enlisted sailors’ cabins on the NEPTUNE are quite tight and cover a deck surface of only fifty square feet. Petty officers’ cabins cover a surface of 64 square feet, while junior officers’ cabins have a deck surface of ninety square feet. In order to use to the maximum those limited cabin surfaces, General Dows sponsored a contest between naval architecture students at Georgetown University to see what kind of designs they could produce within those surface limitations. I must say that I was personally impressed by some of the proposals we got back.’’
‘’Very well: let’s go visit a sailor’s cabin!’’
Leaving the observation gallery and going to the nearest set of elevator cabins along the port side of the ship, the group went down by four levels and stepped into a long and fairly narrow passageway running along the outer side of the port strut linking the main, box-like superstructure of the ship with its port cylindrical underwater hull. Ferranti then turned right along the passageway and walked for about ten paces before stopping and opening a sliding door on the inner side.
‘’This cabin is one of the few sailor’s cabins which have been completed and furnished to date, Mister President. If you may step inside…’’
A curious Perot did so and found himself inside a tiny cabin measuring two meters in width and 2.5 meters in depth. The cabin was nearly filled with a bunk bed with integrated drawers under it, a small work desk with bookshelf and a steel locker. A couple of wall hooks were also fixed to one wall, while a small flat screen television set was mounted on shock-absorbing wall brackets facing the bed. Turning slowly around while looking at the inside of the cabin, Perot nodded his head in appreciation.
‘’Not bad! This may look like a tight space but I bet that the previous sailors’ accommodations were much tighter than this.’’
‘’Oh, they definitely are, Mister President.’’ replied Admiral Klasser. Right now, the standard for enlisted sailors’ accommodations is a bunk piled three-high, with the only place to keep a sailor’s spare uniforms and personal effects being a shallow bin situated under the bunk. I was skeptical about what I considered at first to be an outrageous waste of precious space, but I must say now that the very special shape and design of this ship provided plenty of space for those new accommodation standards. Our serving Navy men and women will fight to be assigned to this ship.’’
‘’Well, anything that can reinforce the morale of our Navy personnel will get my approval, Admiral. Mister Ferranti, I have only one question concerning this cabin design: why the television screen? What will our sailors be able to watch on it?’’
‘’They will be able to watch the same main national television channels that every American can watch, including one channel dedicated to sports events. The Navy recently signed a contract with the country’s four main television channels, to be able to retransmit their programming to our ships at sea via satellite links. This is another measure meant to improve service conditions at sea for our men and women.’’
‘’An excellent idea, I must say.’’ said Perot, truly pleased. ‘’How about we go see those vertical launch systems now, Mister Ferranti?’’
‘’With pleasure, Mister President! Please follow me!’’
Going back to the nearest bank of elevators, the group went up to the upper deck, where the elevator cages ended, then climbed a steel staircase that gave access to the huge expanse of the NEPTUNE’s flight deck. There, Ferranti flagged one of the electric carts used by the workers busy putting the finishing touches on the aircraft carrier, so that President Perot would not have to walk the 290 meters between their spot on the deck and the VLS battery, situated close to the bow. Perot shook his head in wonderment as the cart sped towards the distant bow.
‘’I can’t believe how vast this new carrier is, Mister Ferranti. Can you remind me of its length and width?’’
‘’I certainly can, Mister President. The NEPTUNE’s flight deck has a length of 1,452 feet, or 440 meters on its runway side, and a width of 297 feet, or ninety meters, including its deck leading edge extensions, which are made of wood and fiberglass rather than steel. Those edge extensions are meant to deflect away any giant waves that could crash against the sides of the ship and thus become a threat to the aircraft parked on the flight deck. Furthermore, they were built of wood and fiberglass in order to make them non-reflective to radar and thus help the carrier stay stealthy.’’
‘’And how stealthy is this carrier, Mister Ferranti?’’
‘’We conducted tests with small scale models inside a radar echo chamber and we believe that the U.S.S. NEPTUNE will basically have the radar signature of a surfaced submarine, or that of a small fishing boat, at the most. That is mainly due to the sloped sides of the hull and of its superstructures. The NEPTUNE will also be a very quiet ship acoustically-wise, thanks to having its nuclear reactors and turbo-generators mounted on elastic cradles situated high above the waterline, just under the hangar deck. That way, the carrier will generate the minimum of noise through the water, making it more difficult to be located via sonar. It will also be able to operate in electronic silence conditions, using passive infra-red, electronic warfare passive sensors and passive sonar sensors to keep a silent watch around the ship.’’
Ross Perot couldn’t help nod his head then, thoroughly impressed.
‘’Decidedly, this ship seems to be a true revolution in terms of warship design.’’
‘’And it was meant to be so, Mister President.’’ added Ingrid, sitting with Admiral Klasser and Secretary of Defense John McCain in the back of the cart. ‘’I firmly believe that it was high time that the American forces adopted new, more modern and efficient equipment and concepts.’’
‘’Like your proposed family of new combat armored vehicles? Many Army generals screamed murder when you decreed that the time of heavy tanks was gone.’’
‘’Unfortunately, too many of those generals possess little true vision and refuse to look at newer weapons concepts, Mister President. With the weight of tanks now generally up to and even past fifty tons, our armored units were becoming too heavy to be quickly moved strategically around the World, while our main battle tanks can’t roll over many bridges and highway overpasses in Europe and the United States without collapsing or damaging them. Added to that is the fact that, as thick as their armor is, it still can be penetrated and defeated by many of the simple and cheap to manufacture models of portable anti-tank weapons flooding the World military markets these days. What is the point of paying over a million dollars for a tank that can’t fit inside most of our transport aircraft, can’t roll over half of the bridges and highway overpasses and can be killed by a 2,000-dollar man-portable antitank weapon?’’
‘’Please excuse my ignorance on the subject of armored vehicles, General Dows,’’ said Admiral Klasser, ‘’but what was the solution you proposed to this problem?’’
‘’Smaller and lighter armored combat vehicles armed with missiles and rockets rather than with large caliber guns.’’ answered at once Ingrid. ‘’For that purpose, I relied on our present aircraft rocket technology, which is quite advanced and gave us rockets with velocities approaching those of the fastest tank gun rounds used presently. We further saved both weight and complication by using multiple-tube rocket launchers, something that eliminates the need for a human loader and saves many tons in weight. I further proposed a model of rocket launcher that could also accommodate guided missiles and which popped up from inside an armored box for a second or so just before firing. The WOLVERINE, the concept combat vehicle presently being designed, will be smaller than our present main battle tanks, much lighter at less than 25 tons and will be both heavily armed and well armored, with highly-sloped armored sides and front to resist portable anti-tank weapons and light cannon fire.’’
‘’Still,’’ said John McCain, ‘’you now have an army of defense contractors’ lobbyists and politicians clamoring for your head because of the various contract cancellations and redirected weapons procurement your new projects caused, Ingrid.’’
Ingrid couldn’t help make a bitter smirk at those words.
‘’I don’t care about those lobbyists and politicians, John. What I care is about making our armed forces better, more powerful and more efficient. Improving the service conditions and morale of our military members is part of the solution as well.’’
‘’And I wholeheartedly agree with your innovations, Ingrid. Still, be careful about those lobbyists and politicians: they well could try to stab you in the back one day.’’
‘’They already tried to have me assassinated, John.’’ replied Ingrid, getting a bit agitated. ‘’What the hell am I supposed to do? Capitulate and let outdated thinking and corrupt practices hurt our armed forces?’’
‘’You won’t need to do that, Ingrid.’’ said Ross Perot, his expression most sober. ‘’If politicians try to smear you, I will have your back.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President.’’ replied Ingrid, feeling some relief at those words.
The cart soon stopped next to a group of large steel hatches which were flush with the portion of the flight deck they were in. With the group stepping out of the cart, Michael Ferranti went to a small panel hidden on the deck and opened it, revealing a control box with a number of buttons and light indicators.
‘’This control box is meant to be used by technicians when they want to inspect the hatches of the ship’s VLS cells. I am going to open the armored hatch over one of the eighteen Mark 95 VLS modules fitted to the NEPTUNE. Each of those modules incorporate eight launch cells, making for a total of 144 launch cells. Each of those cells, with an internal cross-section of four feet and four inches and a depth of thirty feet, can accommodate either one heavy missile or four smaller, medium-range missiles of various types contained in a quad pack arrangement in their own launch tubes.’’
Ross Perot’s mouth opened when he saw a thick steel plate pivot to the vertical, unmasking a double row of launch cell silos, which were presently empty.
‘’Look at the thickness of that cover hatch! It looks to be heavily armored.’’
‘’It effectively is an armored hatch, Mister President.’’ said Ferranti. ‘’All the VLS modules, gun ammunition handling rooms and ammunition magazines of the NEPTUNE are heavily armored and sunk well within the ship’s hull in order to give them maximum protection. The armor around and over our VLS modules is actually made of eight inches of armor steel. Add to that the multiple hull internal walls a missile, shell or bomb would have to pierce through before reaching those modules and you have something that could resist about anything short of a nuclear weapon or battleship shell. Also, the SWATH design of the NEPTUNE’s hull allowed us to modify our existing VLS system, the Mark 80 VLS, by eliminating the need for the hot gas venting from a missile firing to have to be redirected upwards via a ‘U’-shaped hot gas duct. Now, our new Mark 95 VLS simply vents the hot gasses from rocket exhausts directly under the hull of the main box superstructure, which stands a good 45 feet above the water. The hot gas then is vented through armored bottom hatches which prevent seawater from splashing up through the vent channels. On top of hiding from direct view much of the flames and smoke from a missile firing, this new system allowed us to fit double the amount of missile cells compared to the Mark 80 VLS, since there were no more needs for the ‘U’-shaped gas venting duct. With the extensive use of quadpack launch cells, the NEPTUNE could in theory be armed with up to 576 missiles.’’
‘’My god! With so many missiles, this ship could devastate any enemy fleet or coastal area.’’
‘’That is actually one of the goals we were aiming for with the building of this new class of carriers, Mister President: to have a single, hard-to-detect ship able to crush an enemy from a respectable distance, using both missile power and embarked aircraft. Since this ship will not need an escort fleet and since it actually cost less to build than a classic NIMITZ-Class carrier, we thus saved enough money to be able to build two of them in exchange for one NIMITZ and its nine escort warships. Also, by navigating by itself under nuclear power, the NEPTUNE will be free to maneuver at will, without having to coordinate its moves with escort ships.’’
‘’Wait! How could such a huge ship cost less to build than a NIMITZ-Class aircraft carrier?’’ objected Perot, making Ferranti smile.
‘’Simple, Mister President: by drastically cutting the number of man-hours needed for its construction. Nearly all of its hull is built out of flat steel plates, with only very few curved plates needed. Curving a large steel plate to precise specifications and forms necessitates both a powerful hydraulic press and highly skilled shipyard workers, plus takes a lot more time than just welding in place a bunch of flat steel plates. In comparison, the hull of a NIMITZ-Class carrier is mostly nothing but curved plates, save for its flight deck. That is one reason why we were able to build this ship so quickly. We are now at the stage of final fitting of internal systems and furnishing and will be able to officially launch the ship in less than three months. You will be able to baptize this ship well before the end of your first White House mandate, Mister President.’’
‘’Wow! That will be quite a moment. Uh, I have one last question for you, Mister Ferranti: why build the NEPTUNE inside a covered drydock? Is it to hide it from the view of potential spies?’’
‘’It is, Mister President. We also intend to launch the ship at night and without prior public announcement for the same reason. The less our potential enemies will know about this ship, the better.’’
‘’I certainly agree with that. Well, if you have nothing else to show us, then I believe that we can return to Washington.’’
‘’Oh, there could be lots more to show you, Mister President. However, it would take me days to show you everything of interest aboard this ship. I will now drive you back to your transport aircraft.’’
With the group loading back on the cart, Michael Ferranti drove his cart down the flight deck, stopping it once near the Hiller PELICAN ‘C’ VTOL transport aircraft parked next to the stern superstructure island of the ship. Perot, Ingrid, Admiral Klasser and John McCain then boarded the aircraft, which was a militarized variant of the Hiller AIRBUS designed years ago by Ingrid, when she was still retired from active military service. The pilot of the PELICAN then started its turboprop engines, making the four large pivoting, shrouded propellers start to spin. Less than a minute later, the PELICAN deftly jumped into the air, then cautiously flew out via the large doors of the covered drydock before turning towards Washington and picking up speed.
17:16 (Washington Time)
Ingrid’s office, The Pentagon
With John McCain in tow and with the intention of discussing with him their visit to the Roanoke Shipyards, Ingrid entered the anteroom occupied by her secretary, to find a young man wearing a business suit waiting for her there, sitting in the sofa of the anteroom. The man got up on his feet as soon as she entered the room and walked to her, an envelope in his right hand.
‘’General Dows? I have been sent by Senator Sam Nunn to give you this subpoena in person: you are being summoned to a closed joint hearing of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, to be held next Monday, on August 28, at ten in the morning.’’
Taking the envelope offered by the man, Ingrid opened it and quickly read the document she extracted from it before giving a caustic look at the congressional aide.
‘’First, you can tell Senator Nunn that I will be there. Second, please erase that arrogant smirk from your face before leaving my office.’’
The aide, knowing Ingrid’s reputation for quick, decisive action, did not protest her rebuke and left the office at a quick walk. John McCain then looked at the document still held by Ingrid.
‘’What is this all about, Ingrid? Does this subpoena say it?’’
‘’No! It just says that the Senate wants to review our latest weapons acquisition programs with me. I guess that I will have to extensively prepare for that hearing before going to the Capitol on Monday morning. They may want to discuss…or rather dispute, a good dozen programs or more.’’
‘’Do that, Ingrid! In the meantime, I will contact Senator Nunn and ask him for his true motives to call this hearing. Unfortunately, since the Perot administration is officially an independent one, we can’t count automatically on the support of the Democratic members of the committee, as a number of past recent cases have proven.’’
‘’Yeah! Having a President that is neither a Democrat nor a Republican is still a bit disconcerting to many Americans, even though President Perot’s approval ratings are still quite decent. Well, that’s American politics for you, I guess.’’
‘’Right! Backstabbing, rank partisanship and all.’’ replied McCain in an acerbic tone.
09:51 (Washington Time)
Monday, August 28, 1995 ‘C’
Senate closed hearings room, The Capitol
Washington, D.C.
Arriving a bit early at the Senate closed hearings room, Ingrid, wearing her parade uniform and accompanied by John McCain, found it nearly empty, with no Congress members present at the time. After the Senate’s Sergeant-at-arms registered their arrival, Ingrid and McCain went to the witnesses’ table, set in front of the elevated dais to be used by the committee members, and set their various files and reference documents on the table, then sat down and waited for the politicians to show up. Ingrid nodded in approval on seeing that no reporter was present, with only a congressional official camera team present to take an official video record of the session. That video recording was going to be treated as a classified document afterwards, as per Congressional rules concerning closed hearings. She was thus going to be able to use classified data to support her positions and affirmations.
‘’At least, they had the good sense to keep this hearing a closed one.’’ said John McCain. ‘’An open hearing would have severely limited your ability to defend your positions without compromising some important classified data. I would have refused to expose you to an open hearing anyway.’’
‘’Thanks, John! I am curious to see if those politicians will solely concentrate on military matters or if they will try to smear me by attacking my private life or my political positions.’’
‘’What political positions?’’ replied McCain, smiling slightly. ‘’You have served as presidential advisor for about as many Democratic presidents than for Republican presidents. They will have a hard time nailing you on that aspect.’’
‘’Well, I am known to be a passionate anti-segregationist and anti-racist. That should attract a few barbs to me, especially with that old James Strom Thurmond being the ranking member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee. Remember as well that a Republican congressman from Mississippi is presently appealing his conviction for complicity in an attempted murder as a result of the FBI’s investigation in the sabotage of my test fighter aircraft. That congressman is said to be a good friend of Senator Thurmond.’’
‘’I am sure that Congressman Dellum, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will do his best to keep Thurmond in check on that matter, Ingrid.’’
Ingrid nodded at that: Robert Dellum was an African-American and had been fighting racial segregation for decades, thus would have no sympathies towards Thurmond’s opinions or views. The first members of Congress then started entering the room via a door situated behind the elevated dais, making Ingrid and John McCain stand up. The sole woman in that group, Representative Patricia Schroeder smiled and waved discretely at Ingrid while taking her seat behind the dais.
Some four minutes later, the last politicians, including Senator Sam Nunn, had taken their seats. Nunn then banged his gavel twice before speaking in his microphone.
‘’I now declare this joint session of the Armed Services Committees of the House and of the Senate open. The Sergeant-at-arms will now make the witnesses officially swear.’’
Ingrid and John McCain took a minute to swear to tell the truth, then were able to sit back in their chairs. Sam Nunn then spoke again as he fixed Ingrid directly.
‘’For the record, this joint session of the Congressional Armed Services Committees has been called to get the testimony of General of the Army Ingrid Dows, Commander of the Combined Forces of the United States, concerning various aspects of our defense program and policies. I would like to first remind all the persons present that this session will discuss a number of highly classified matters and that no parts of it may be made public without my prior express consent. I will deal very severely with any breach of that rule…from anybody. We may now begin this session with the individual declarations and questions from each member present, with five minutes allowed per member. The Ranking Member of the Senate Committee, The Honorable James Strom Thurmond, may be first to speak.’’
Ingrid hid her contempt as the 92-year-old Southern senator activated his microphone to speak. The man actually represented some of the things she despised the most personally: on top of being an avowed racist, Thurmond had a widespread reputation as a sexual abuser who kept touching inappropriately female members of the staff and employees of the Congress and was also known to have been involved into a number of extra-marital affairs. Having studied what was available as information about Strom Thurmond in the old Athena files kept in the Pentagon, Ingrid felt confident that she knew enough about the old politician to counter attacks from him. In return, there was no hint of friendliness towards Ingrid in the old man’s eyes as he started speaking in a frail voice.
‘’General Dows, one of the reasons that prompted the calling of this session is the fact that a number of things are putting in doubt your motives about a number of your decisions touching our military, especially when concerning defense equipment acquisition programs. First off: what is your present official salary as a five-star general?’’
Guessing what Thurmond was trying to get at, Ingrid nonetheless answered him at once and without hesitation.
‘’My gross annual salary before taxes is presently just short of 94,000 dollars, Senator.’’
‘’Do you have other sources of financial revenues apart from your military salary, General Dows?’’
‘’Yes! As the holder of two copyrighted aeronautical design patents concerning a revolutionary aircraft wing shape, called commonly a ‘diamond’ or ‘box’ wing, and of another design patent concerning wing profiles and called ‘Adaptive Wing Profile’, I still get a one-hundred-dollar royalty for each civilian transport aircraft designed and built using either of those two patents. The royalty for small, private aircraft is fifty dollars. Both of those two concepts were registered as private patents under my name in 1949, before I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor of aeronautical engineering’s degree.’’
‘’What about military aircraft? Does the Defense Department also have to pay a royalty for each military aircraft built with either of your patents integrated in them?’’
‘’No!’’ replied Ingrid in a firm voice. ‘’I sold the rights to use my patents to the U.S. Air Force in 1949, for the grand total of one dollar. A couple of years later, I also sold the use of my patents to the U.S. Navy and Army, again for a dollar. Since then, our military has not had to pay a cent to use my patents, even when the planes built were destined to equip the air forces of some of our allies.’’
‘’What about the money you got from selling to our military a number of new aircraft models you designed for the Hiller Helicopter Corporation?’’
With Thurmond’s end goal now becoming clear, Ingrid stared hard at the older politician while responding to him in a strong voice.
‘’Before you start insinuating about improprieties and contract favoritisms on my part, Senator Thurmond, let me make a few points clear to the members of this session. First off, at the time that I designed various models of aircraft for Hiller, I was already retired from active service and was only an inactive member of the Reserves. Second, I didn’t sell those new models to our military: Mister Stanley Hiller did. Third, I resigned my position as designer at Hiller and also cut my contacts and links with that company the moment I rejoined the active ranks of our military. Whatever contracts were made after that with Hiller were arranged with other defense officials, with no inputs on my part.’’
‘’Then, General, how do you explain the fact that your personal bank accounts actually contains a total of 2,683,441 dollars as of ten days ago? You will tell me that over 20,000 aircraft were built in the U.S.A. with your patents incorporated into their designs?’’
John McCain’s jaws clenched hard as he saw what kind of smear Thurmond was trying to paint over Ingrid, but the latter replied at once as a wave of whispers and quick glances were exchanged among the politicians sitting behind the bench.
‘’Only a third of that amount you just quoted came from the patent royalties I still own, Senator Thurmond. As for the rest, the explanation for it is simple: it represents my accumulated, unspent part of my past pay. I have spent the majority of my military career in either active war zones, fighting the enemies of the United States or enforcing peace in turbulent regions of the World, or in deep space missions. Believe it or not, but you will not find shopping malls or night clubs in the Jupiter and Saturn Systems, nor will you find some on the Moon or on Mars.’’
Her retort did trigger a short-lived concert of amused giggles and smiles before she continued on while starring into Thurmond’s eyes.
‘’If you would take the time to properly study my military career, Senator, you will see that I served in wartime field conditions, for three months during the First Korean War, then for two m