WASHINGTON DC -- Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan today leads a delegation on a mission that promises a stern test of his Government's diplomatic and management skills.

His meetings with the US Navy at the Pentagon and later with NATO in Norfolk, Virginia will also ultimately decide whether Bermuda has any value left as a mid-Atlantic military base.

This morning's meeting with Admiral Frank Kelso, US Chief of Naval Operations, is the first opportunity to hear of the Navy's plans for the US Naval Air Station since Congress ordered its shutdown for September 1, 1995.

It is also considered an important first step towards establishing a working relationship between the Navy and the Bermuda Government.

"We're going to try to ascertain what they have in mind and determine what can be done to achieve a mutually beneficial result,'' the Premier said last night. "What we want to find out is if there is anything we can do that will help them in their decision making and that works in our favour.'' The Premier will try to elicit Navy and NATO thinking on the long term future of the Base. But more importantly, he will try to pin down Navy thinking in its immediate task to plan for its closure.

The Navy is required by Congress to submit a plan by March 1 for the shutdown of the Base.

"We want to make sure we have input in that plan,'' said Deputy Premier the Hon. Irving Pearman, who is accompanying the Premier.

One of the Premier's nuts and bolts concerns today will be to find out who in the Navy's vast bureaucracy his officials should communicate with over the next few months.

It is to those people that Bermuda will put forward the Island's concerns involving the takeover of emergency operations, fire services, tarmac maintenance and lighting, and air traffic control.

The Bermuda delegation, which also includes assistant Cabinet Secretary Major John Drinkwater, will also seek clarification of a clause in the 1994 Defence Bill that would allow the Navy to continue airfield operations after September of 1995 "on a reimbursible basis''.

No-one in the Bermuda delegation or in the US Government has expressed a clear definition of what that clause means. However, it is seen as an opening for some form of shared operations beyond 1995.

It is that opening that Premier Swan will explore later today with Admiral Paul Miller, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for the Atlantic.

The uncertainty of the Base's future beyond 1995 and what role Bermuda will play presents a planning challenge for the Island.

"At this early stage, it's difficult for us to be definite with the public,'' Mr. Pearman said. "I would hope we can progress over the next three months to a point at which we can lay out for Bermuda the negotiating stance we need to take over the following year and a half.'' Also in today's meetings is Capt. Tim Bryan, Commanding Officer of the US Naval Air Station.