Costs Ballooning for New Combat Ship

[GreatAmerican]

<p>Published in the Washington Compost:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022802143.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022802143.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

A Navy program to build a new combat ship to patrol coastal waters will face another cost increase, government officials acknowledged yesterday, a hit to the service’s attempt to keep expenses under control so it can afford a larger fleet.</p>

<p>The increase is expected to affect a version of the ship being built by General Dynamics and comes as Congress is becoming increasingly critical of rising costs in weapons programs and has questioned the Navy’s handling of the combat-ship contract…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p>Posted on NavyTimes.com:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/03/dnbetterLCS070301/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/03/dnbetterLCS070301/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The same kinds of issues that have caused Lockheed Martin’s first Littoral Combat Ship to nearly double in price are affecting the ship being built by competitor General Dynamics, the Navy’s top acquisition official said Wednesday.</p>

<p>“We think [the GD LCS] is going to have a cost overrun, too,” Delores Etter told a group of reporters at a Defense Writer’s Group breakfast in Washington. “Probably not too far from what we’re seeing” on the Lockheed Martin ship…

</p>

[r0tc0d]

<p>I REALLY hope they keep the LCS program going… I want to be a SWO on one so bad! I’ve been reading about them since they were announced. </p>

<p>377 feet long, and possible 50+ knots at a depth of 10-14 feet!! It’s like a yacht, that kicks ***</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/05/defense_LCS_070508/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/05/defense_LCS_070508/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The Navy’s top acquisition official was upbeat and positive May 7 about the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program, telling a Washington audience, “We’re back on track.”</p>

<p>Earlier this year, severe cost overruns and manufacturer problems led the service to cancel plans to buy two more LCS ships in 2007 to pay for cost growth on the first ships. The construction contract for one of two LCSs being built by Lockheed Martin was cancelled, and in a touch of ignominy, a fire damaged the first ship late last month while it was under construction in Wisconsin. The service scaled back its original request for three ships in 2008 to two while the program weathered an intense internal review…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/06/navy_roughead_070613w/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/06/navy_roughead_070613w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Despite major cost problems with the program and some skepticism about the design concepts, Adm. Gary Roughead remains convinced that Littoral Combat Ships are the ships the Navy needs.</p>

<p>“I’ve always believed in the LCS, believed in the need for LCS,” he said. “And that’s just reaffirmed to me that that is going to be a ship of the future for the U.S. Navy.”…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/07/navy_acquisitions_070701w/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/07/navy_acquisitions_070701w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The Department of the Navy’s senior acquisition official said she’s confident the Navy will get back on track despite the recent “stumble” in its Littoral Combat Ship program.</p>

<p>The Navy plans to buy 55 of the ships, which will feature reconfigurable modules tailored for different warfare missions, and are expected to play a big role in the proposed future 313-ship fleet. But cost overruns prompted Navy Secretary Donald Winter to cancel one of the first four ships, a move that raised questions about the viability and affordability of the program…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/09/defense_GD_lcs_070921/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/09/defense_GD_lcs_070921/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The Navy and General Dynamics are expected to meet next week to discuss the Littoral Combat Ship program. GD spokesman Kendall Pease confirmed the Navy had asked for the meeting but provided no further details, other than to say a specific date had not been set.</p>

<p>Other sources, however, said the meeting was to discuss slowing construction on LCS 4, the second ship GD is building at its Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_lcs4_canceled_071101w/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_lcs4_canceled_071101w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The Navy announced Thursday it had canceled the fourth Littoral Combat Ship in the service’s latest dose of tough love to shipbuilders.</p>

<p>Over the past months, the Navy has halved its orders for the small, next-generation ships; Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics now are building one LCS sea frame each, based on separate designs. Originally the contractors were to build two apiece.</p>

<p>The Navy cited cost overruns on LCS 2, now under construction by General Dynamics at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala., as the main reason for the cancellation of the second General Dynamics ship, LCS 4. The Navy terminated the contract for Lockheed Martin’s second sea frame, LCS 3, in the spring…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p>[Congress</a> to vote on LCS cuts, fleet additions - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times](<a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_defense_approps_071107w/]Congress”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_defense_approps_071107w/)</p>

<p>

Congressional purse-holders chopped more than a half-billion dollars Tuesday from the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program, while adding funds for the Virginia-class submarine program and advanced procurement money for another San Antonio-class amphibious ship and additional T-AKE-class dry cargo and ammunition ships.</p>

<p>The decisions were made jointly by the House and Senate appropriations committees for the fiscal 2008 Defense Department appropriations bill. The bill totals $459.3 billion in discretionary spending authority for the Pentagon…

</p>

[GreatAmerican]

<p>[Money</a> for Virginia-class submarines approved - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times](<a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_submarines_071113/]Money”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_submarines_071113/)</p>

<p>

President Bush signed a defense spending bill Tuesday that would double Virginia-class submarine production to two boats per year, capping a long battle by Connecticut and Rhode Island lawmakers eager to protect home-state jobs.</p>

<p>The lawmakers won House and Senate approval of the measure last week. They have been pressing the Navy for several years to accelerate plans to double production of the high-tech attack submarine. Boosting production could help safeguard jobs at Electric Boat, the submarine-maker with facilities in both states…

</p>

[navy2010]

<p>this is a little dated, but an interesting “read” never the less!</p>

<p>

One day in November, a nuclear-powered Chinese Navy submarine quietly slipped past this western Pacific island, home port for five supply and ammunition ships positioned here by the U.S. military for rapid deployment around the world. </p>

<p>“We are watching them,” a crew member of a U.S. Navy nuclear attack submarine said at an American fast food restaurant while on shore leave here. “The Chinese are a real concern.”

</p>

<p>[url=<a href=“Military Daily News”>Military Daily News]Military.com[/url</a>]</p>