Our View: Make sure the ships work

[unhappycamper]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/make-sure-the-ships-work-b9980928z1-220765831.html



Our View: Make sure the ships work
Aug. 22, 2013

~snip~

But the Navy needs to get this right. The ships — being built in Marinette and Mobile, Ala. — cost up to $480 million each and could eventually comprise one-third of the U.S. surface fleet.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office has raised concerns that the ships may not perform as expected. As the Journal Sentinel's Rick Barrett noted in a recent article, the program has been dogged by problems, including early cost overruns. In addition, the completed ships have suffered from mechanical problems as well as from delays in producing switchable mission modules aimed at making the ships adaptable to varied types of warfare.

Testing has revealed deficiencies with "core ship systems," according to the July 25 GAO report, which says Congress should consider restricting funding for additional littoral combat ships until the Navy completes technical and design studies. On top of that, the Navy is still considering design changes to the ships.

This all could be a recipe for disaster. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is among critics of the program. "LCS must not be allowed to become yet another failed program in an already unacceptably long list of amorphous acronyms that, after squandering literally billions of taxpayer dollars, have long since lost meaning," McCain said on the Senate floor in July, citing several recent Army, Air Force and Navy programs such as the presidential helicopter replacement program.