Skeptical of the U.S. Navy's assertion that an offshore jet pilot training platform isn't feasible, Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, has ordered a report detailing the cost to build such a facility.

Basnight, who also is the state's Senate president pro tem, has instructed members of the General Assembly's transportation staff to compile the report. Basnight's instructions follow several occasions in which he met with Navy Rear Adm. David Anderson to discuss the idea.

Anderson, who is the Navy's point man for the search for a new land-based Outlying Landing Field, insisted Thursday in an interview with reporters that the offshore platform idea is not feasible. Yet, Basnight isn't convinced. And Anderson said Thursday that after having held several previous conversations with Basnight, he believed the senator was coming around to his way of thinking. Now, he isn't so sure.

"I'm not sure he is still (convinced an offshore platform would work)," Anderson said.

The Navy is looking at five sites as potential locations for a new OLF, which the Navy says it needs to provide jet pilots valuable training for landing on aircraft carriers. Two of the sites include the Hales Lake area in Camden County, and a location in Gates County. The other three sites are in Virginia. Basnight's idea is for the Navy to construct a major offshore training platform that would give pilots room for error during training runs. But Anderson said the offshore winds are unpredictable, which could make the training difficult for pilots.

"Winds are predictable over the land. You get out over the water and they change every day. They could be anywhere from 0 to 40 knots," Anderson said. "It's nothing to have 30 knots of wind offshore 12 miles. So this platform would have to be able to move, and rotate, into the wind."

More importantly, he said, the offshore facility would have to be massive.

"If you could build a 10,000 foot length of a runway in a complete 360 degrees so that I could land into the wind, it may be doable," Anderson said. "But you are literally into billions of dollars and huge environmental impacts."

Basnight, however, does not believe the Navy has made a strong enough case arguing against an offshore OLF, his spokesman Schorr Johnson said Friday.

"At this point, Sen. Basnight cannot say he's satisfied that a land-based OLF is the only option," Johnson said.

Basnight strongly opposes a new OLF being built in Camden or Gates counties, and has expressed this to Anderson, Johnson said.

"However, Sen. Basnight is not convinced that an offshore platform is not feasible, and his staff is consulting with engineers to explore this further," Johnson said.

Several alternatives to having Navy jets practice touch-and-go maneuvers on the ground have been floated. One was to use the decommissioned John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier for the practice landings and takeoffs.

Anderson said pilots need to make more than 100 passes on a land-based OLF because it prepares them for the dangerous carrier landings. Practicing the maneuvers on a real carrier without the land-based training would be dangerous for the pilots, Anderson said.

Considering the rate of descent fighter jets make as they approach a moving carrier, landing is tantamount to "a controlled crash," the admiral said.

Anderson said before pilots begin practicing the 100 or so training landings, they must first complete training in a flight simulator. Then instructors hold their breath and hope for the best, he said.

"After I've told him (the pilot) about all this wind, and shown him in a simulated model, now I'm ready to go let him risk his life and billions of dollars of taxpayer money to let him be successful," he said.