Navy's Costliest Vessel Ever Just Breached a $12.9 Billion Cap Set by Congress

[jpak]

http://fortune.com/2018/05/12/navy-uss-gerald-r-ford/

The Navy’s costliest vessel ever just got pricer, breaching a $12.9 billion cap set by Congress by $120 million, the service told lawmakers this week.

The extra money for the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford built by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. is needed to replace faulty propulsion components damaged in a January failure, extend the vessel’s post-delivery repair phase to 12 months from the original eight months and correct deficiencies with the “Advanced Weapons Elevators” used to move munitions from deep in the ship to the deck.

The elevators on the ship, designated CVN 78, need to be fixed “to preclude any effect on the safety of the ship and personnel,” the Naval Sea Systems Command said in a statement to Bloomberg News on Friday. “Once the adjustment is executed, the cost for CVN 78 will stand at $13.027” billion, the Navy said.

In addition to informing Congress that the spending lid has been breached, the Navy will have to let lawmakers know how it will shift funds to make up the difference.

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[ProudLib72]

1. USS Bottomless Pit

[TheSmarterDog]

5. And they want 10 more of them.

[ProudLib72]

6. Time to take a break from all the golf I guess

[Lochloosa]

2. 13 BILLION for a fucking boat.

[Sherman A1]

3. It should sail straight

to the shipbreaker and save us the cost of continually fixing this boondoggle.

[SeattleVet]

11. They should melt it down and produce 45 billion "W.I.N." buttons in Ford's memory.

Only this time, instead of "Whip Inflation Now", they could stand for "Wasteful Incompetent Navy".

[lapfog_1]

4. The most expensive and advanced target on the ocean.

Any $1M missile with a small battlefield size nuke (or even conventional warhead) will sink our vaunted carriers.

Doesn't have to hit the carrier, just get close (like a mile or so).

[dameatball]

8. This is true. Battleships became obsolete. Carriers are not impregnable.

[lapfog_1]

10. Carriers won the war in the Pacific 75 years ago

obsolete at this point except when we need a military airport to attack a nearly defenseless nation state.

[FBaggins]

13. Not at all true

A WWII carrier was closer than that to two separate nuclear blasts and didn’t sink (1/2 km from a Nagasaki-sized bomb).

Modern carriers are significantly more survivable. Nor is it clear that such a weapon would get past a carrier group’s defense -in-depth.

The supposed nuclear torpedo the Russians claim to have would easily do the trick IF it actually works.

[lapfog_1]

14. a balanced article that explains the challenges and opportunities to sink a modern carrier.

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/what-it-would-really-take-to-sink-a-modern-aircraft-car-1794182843

[FBaggins]

16. Seems about right

I'm not sure where it disagrees with what I said though. In fact, I understand that the article was written specifically to refute an earlier claim that they were easy to sink.

[lapfog_1]

17. second paragraph

"Nuke a carrier, and it’s sort of game over, really. Nuke anything and things tend to be over."

[Lurker Deluxe]

20. The next paragraph ...

Basically, if you can hit it.

"Even a supersonic cruise missile can take twenty minutes to reach its target area at maximum range, and a carrier maneuvering at high speed can move ten miles in the same period of time."

[FBaggins]

24. Two very different things

The original comment discussed a battlefield nuke striking a mile away - which is definitely survivable for a carrier (the whole battle group really). This is talking about actually hitting one from a nuclear-armed submarine (which you’ll note I explicitly distinguished in my original reply).

As has been said many times when discussing nuclear warfare: the trick to survive a nuclear blast is not being there when it goes off. A mile away from a tactical nuke is more than enough for modern aircraft carrier.

[Lurker Deluxe]

19. Get em Bubba!!

Just like the dumb ass redneck with his AR who think he can defend the trailer from the US military. When that Apache is hovering over the trailer just go ahead and pop out with your AR and give it a go.

You better be one lucky SOB, and by lucky I mean you do not die within moments of making such a crazy foolhardy attempt. You will most certainly not like the outcome of that action, if you live longer than 20 seconds.

Attacking a carrier group is straight up all out, bring your best to the dance, got nothing left to lose decision. Russia/China ... if we were at war with one of them the carrier group would be the last target they would attack unless it was the move that starts the war. If it is the opening move, you best get all 11 of them in the first shot because the hell they can unleash if you do not is world ending, from thousands of miles away.

Land based stealth bombers and ICBMs are the number one threat to either Russia/China and they would have to attack mainland US to even begin to stop that threat. An attack on the mainland would release the power of the Navy, attack on a carrier group would release the power of stealth/ICBM. With either of these moves it would be the end of the world as we know it, if not the end of the world ... period.

Could Russia/China sink a carrier? I am sure they could. With "any $1M missile"? No, not unless really lucky, while it was sitting still, and by total surprise. In the open seas, moving, on alert ... not likely.

Outside of Russia/China ... could Iran sink a US carrier? Maybe, if they threw everything they had at it, caught it sitting still, in a bad location, by surprise ... maybe. Would there be anything left of Iran's military after that attempt? No, not a single boat or aircraft.

So ... go ahead Bubba, give it a go. Better make sure your affairs are in order, it will be the last thing you do.

[hunter]

30. Sometimes I wonder... is this the 21st century equivalent of the Maginot line?

Maybe all the kleptocrats of the former Soviet Union had to do was buy the Republican Party and troll the internet...

[lapfog_1]

31. 2018s version of the Great White Fleet

just as carriers killed the idea of battleships duking it out with huge guns firing at each other, cruise missiles and other asymmetric attacks render these multi-billion dollar floating airfields nearly useless. The don't "project power" around the globe nor is their air power snough to be decisive against insurgent gorilla terrorist groups.

But when we get into a actual shooting war with Russia or China or Iran... we will see how effective the "modern carrier group" with the attendant destroyers and Aegis cruisers, etc will be against a rain of cruise missiles or suicide rubber boats or nuclear tipped torpedoes.

Not to mention remotely controlled drone attacks.

We will likely see how well the multi-billion ships survive... but I guarantee the opposition will not spend billions to sink our carriers.

[BigmanPigman]

7. This is one reason why other developed countries can afford to

make their citizens lives better through govt assisted college education, health care, retirement, etc. Our country has decided to spend half of the budget on the military instead of its citizens. No wonder our quality of life isn't as great as other countries'.

[Lurker Deluxe]

21. You are correct

It is THE reason other countries can do these things.

Because the US, with all of her faults, stops Russia/China from simply running roughshod over them.

When the US "empire" falls, the world will experience another world war and it will not be pretty.

[BigmanPigman]

22. Every day I am happier that I chose not to have kids when

I was 12. Best decision I ever made. Now I can die without feeling too much guilt. The future is not going to be pretty for the next generation.

[Kaleva]

25. Defense spending accounts for 21% of the federal budget

https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_fed_spending_pie_chart

[BigmanPigman]

26. That's odd, my info from when I googled it is different.

Here is the link.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/

[FBaggins]

27. You misread it

Discretionary spending is not the entire budget.

[Kaleva]

29. Your chart breaks down only discretionary spending

" Discretionary Spending

Discretionary Spending is the portion of the budget that the president requests and Congress appropriates every year. It represents less than one-third of the total federal budget, while mandatory spending accounts for around two-thirds."

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/glossary/#discretionary-spending

The link I posted broke down the entire federal budget.

[BigmanPigman]

32. Thanks!

[dameatball]

9. But.......why build these when we have the best space force in the world....or is it in space?

[trusty elf]

12. U.S.S. Gerald Ford?

He was mainly known for stumbling, hitting people with golf balls, running red lights with his motorcade, causing accidents....

[Achilleaze]

15. The Latter-Day republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief* accepts full responsibility

for this tremendous republican FAIL, not coincidentally named after a republican President, who was at least a genuinely good soul with a sense of humor and honor, unlike current denizens of the KGOP Kremlin on the Potomac.

* aka Comrade Casino or Dirty Donny

Pic of the fair-minded, good sport Republican of yesteryear, Gerald Ford:

[0rganism]

18. i found a pic of it in action

[CK_John]

23. China just started sea drill on their first carrier.

[Submariner]

28. Shitty yard workers doing shitty work

slapping shit together in their guvmint supported jobs. When these right wing military industrial complex outfits latch onto the teat of a shipbuilding contract, especially an aircraft carrier, they latch on good and tight for a long cost busting ride into career enrichment and lots of money for rich executives.

They know they can crash through the $12.9 billion barrier and the repubs in congress will pay them, even if they need to steal food stamp money to do it.

I went into the Philly shipyards on two subs and each time the boat came out in worse condition than when we entered. I used to watch them work. The yardbirds were all more interested in break time and visiting the roach coach than minding the quality of their work.