Costs Ballooning for New Combat Ship

[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;

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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…

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