GET ME REWRITE: U.S. Navy pisses away billions of defense dollars like there’s no tomorrow

 

Top headline:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/8/2023

Photo credit:  Wikipedia

Bottom headline:  New York Times, 9/4/2023

Last year the Navy said it wanted to decommission nine of its Freedom-class littoral combat ships constructed in a massive shipbuilding program in Marinette. The average cost of an LCS was around $500 million including the design work, construction, and government-furnished equipment, according to the Navy. 

"The LCS isn’t really doing the mission it was intended for,” Shelby Oakley, who oversaw the Government Accountability Office’s research on Navy shipbuilding told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in March 2022. 

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Critics said the first littoral combat ships, especially, lacked firepower and armor, making them vulnerable should they come up against larger enemy warships from China. They were also dogged with mechanical problems, breakdowns at sea, and other embarrassing incidents. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on repairs, changes, and cost overruns in the shipbuilding program launched by the Navy more than 20 years ago. There were two distinctly different versions of the vessels, the Freedom Class designed by defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. and built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marinette, and the Independence Class built by Austral USA in Mobile, Alabama.