Could a newfangled, mobile, offshore airport anchored just off Virginia Beach be the answer to the noise controversy surrounding jet fighters at Oceana Naval Air Station? McDermott International Inc., a New Orleans-based maker of offshore oil platforms and other heavy industrial items, thinks so.

McDermott is hoping the Defense Department goes for its Joint Mobile Offshore Base project. Drawing heavily from offshore oil platform technology, the project involves five 1,000-foot-long base units that can be taken across oceans at a speedy 15 knots. After arriving at their destination — usually the inshore waters near an island to be invaded or a threatened country, such as Kuwait — the five parts can be linked together and held in place by semi-submersible platforms sunk in up to 100 feet of water.

Once put together, the platform can act as an instant military base with a mile-long airstrip, storage for up to 3,500 vehicles and accommodations for 15,000 troops. It can operate in rough seas.

The Marine Corps is said to like the idea. But the Navy, wedded to fast aircraft carriers that can cost nearly $4 billion a copy, has turned up its nose. So, to curry favor with the Navy, McDermott has suggested that the Navy consider placing one such base in the Atlantic a few miles off Virginia Beach.

The advantage? The Navy faces a major controversy since it is considering basing its next generation of F-18 Super Hornet fighter-bombers at Oceana. The twin-finned jets, however, make a lot of noise, especially as they practice touch-and-go landings in Virginia Beach or at a nearby field in Chesapeake. If they perform such maneuvers several miles out to sea at the base, they could avoid residents’ complaints. An Oceana spokesman, however, says he hasn’t heard of the idea.