Did I not say in that other thread that US warship programs were in total disarray, the shipbuilders were completely off the reservation, PEO was a circus, and that we were in serious as in critical trouble?

 

Herald

Dept of Commerce wrote a report in 2005 reporting about the parlous state of affairs, and even the team that came back after helping out with HMS Astute did a follow up report (which also ended up in Australia to try and give us warning shots)

 

what gets me is that USN went through this development/costing crisis in WW2 and worked out a model which is still regarded as viable (ie fixed price with recognised profit margin subject to the vendor showing the naval bureau all costs schedules)

 

It doesn't come as a surpise, and it should send a warning to industry that the "snouts in the trough days" are at risk...

 

 

No chance of it, but won't it be worth firing a shot across the US defence contactors' bow and buy a few ships from foreign yards? 

How about replacing the LCS with the Bangaram class patrol vessels. They only cost $12.5 million per ship. Light weight, long endurance and a 30mm gun to shoot with.

 

What you guys think of this idea? 

I say good riddance! The LCS's suprisingly low capability and ludicrous expense make it a non-viable budget item. We'd be better off just building more destroyers with armed helos/UAV's on board as well as upgrading the destroyers we already have.

Except that even at the LCS's inflated prices, we could still buy three for the price of a new Burke.  The USN needs a large number of hulls to replace the MCMs and FFGs that are going to be retired soon.

But one destroyer can't be in three places.  And why does the Navy need 90 some odd VLS, a brace of Harpoon launchers and a crew of over 400 to chase down pirates in 50 ft open boats?  The 170 ft Cyclone class would be more than sufficient for the job.  They may not be as comfortable as an 800 ft psuedo-battleship destroyer (DDG-1000), but all you have to do is make it a specialized volunteer unit like the subs and sailors will line up to go bust pirates...hot bunking and all.

 

Not enough endurance?  Send a tender.  Not a massive fleet supply ship that feeds 5,000 sailors, eight major surface combatants and a bunch of squadrons of airplanes.  I'm talking about a small freighter of a few thousand tons that can stay at sea and supply fuel and provisions to a small squadron (4-6?) of 450 ton patrol boats with crews of a few dozen.  If you want to be real clever, the tender would provide air support for the squadron as well.  A composite unit like that could cover a lot more water than a single impossibly expensive gold plated monument to Alfred Mahon.

 

The surface Navy is broken because it cannot wrap itself around any problem that doesn't look like the Battle of Jutland or Leyte Gulf; and the same way the Marines are always re-equipping themselves to retake Tarawa, or have to maintain a third independent US air force because they got left alone on Guadalcanal 65 years ago.