Congress eyes navy shipbuilding programs

[unhappycamper]

Congress eyes navy shipbuilding programs
Staff writer - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 28, 2008 21:56:09 EST

Congressional scrutiny of the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding programs is likely to continue to be sharp, if the new budget season’s first two naval hearings are any indication.

On Wednesday, House Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., signaled a possible lack of support for the new Zumwalt class DDG 1000 destroyer program when he asked about the effects of delaying the 2009 ship in favor of more auxiliary cargo ships. Murtha later said he’d like to examine cutting short the planned buy of seven Zumwalts and moving up acquisition of the follow-on CG(X) cruiser, now scheduled to begin in 2011.

As he did last year, Murtha also declared his intention to buy the Navy 10 ships this year rather than the seven the service is asking for. Construction of an additional, tenth, ship of the San Antonio LPD 17 class also is a goal, he said.

Cost growth, Murtha cautioned, remains a serious issue for the service’s 313-ship fleet plan.

That concern was echoed Thursday during the Senate Armed Service Committee’s posture hearing on the Navy Department’s $149.3 billion 2009 budget request. Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., reiterated his apprehensions about “cost problems in the shipbuilding arena, most notably with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program.”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/navy_DN_022808_navy_hearing_web/



uhc comment: The DDG 1000 is only $3,300,000,000 a pop.

[Sherman A1]

1. An interesting point recently made in Proceedings

published by the US Naval Institute. The US Navy is larger than the next 17 combined.... So the question becomes.... Just who are we going to fight?