The budget cycle in Washington, D.C. over the next year or two could determine the P-8A Poseidon’s future on Whidbey Island, according to former Island County commissioner Mac McDowell.

“The decision to bring four P-8A Poseidon squadrons and 2,000 sailors to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (in 2017) still stands,” McDowell told a group gathered April 7 at a luncheon for the Republican Women’s Club of North Whidbey.

McDowell recently accompanied a contingent of Oak Harbor officials to Washington, D.C., where the future of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft at NAS Whidbey was discussed with Navy officials and lawmakers.

Local officials became concerned when the Navy began examining whether there are more “efficient” ways to conduct the operation. McDowell, who served on the Island County Commission for 16 years and retired as a captain in the Navy Reserves, says “efficient” in Navy terms is another word for saving money.

More than four years ago, after the Quadrennial Defense Review, the Department of Defense determined there was a greater need for anti-submarine forces in the Pacific than the Atlantic. Consequently P-3 Orions would be followed by P-8A Poseidons in the Pacific.

In response, the Navy arrived at a Record of Decision that would station three P-8A squadrons in Kaneohe, Hawaii, four P-8A squadrons – 24 total airplanes – on Whidbey Island and five operation and one training squadron in Jacksonville, Fla.

In response to severe budget issues, the Pentagon is reviewing many decisions where action has not been completed. For the time being, the Navy is following the current ROD, but that could change.

“If 10 squadrons were to be placed at NAS Jacksonville a new Record of Decision would need to be reviewed and done,” said McDowell. “We were told this by all Pentagon people we visited and that the existing ROD is the official Navy decision.”

Official word could still be a year or more away, McDowell said, and “efficiency” could come back to haunt Whidbey Island.

McDowell said the cost for a new hangar is about $145 million. But he maintains it makes better financial sense to let the current ROD stand, because it is more costly to fly P-8A’s  across America than to use planes based at NAS Whidbey.

Also the cost per man hour on Whidbey Island is half that on Hawaii and slightly less than Jacksonville.
McDowell said Whidbey Island has airspace that is largely unencumbered with fewer people living on land under the aircraft’s flight path.