Winter visits Bath amid shipbuilding battle

[unhappycamper]

Winter visits Bath amid shipbuilding battle
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 18, 2008 7:24:03 EDT

Navy Secretary Donald Winter is taking a tour today of Bath Iron Works, the birthplace of Navy destroyers since World War II, at the invitation of the shipyard’s president, Dugan Shipway, and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who announced June 6 that she and Winter would be visiting the yard.

“Bath Iron Works has achieved significant cost saving progress since your last visit in January 2006 and will play a key role in the success of the DDG 1000 program,” Collins wrote in her invitation to Winter. She promised he would be “amazed” at the new facilities in the yard, which enable engineers to build fewer, bigger components that fit together to form the destroyers.

Undaunted that their House colleagues in May excised funding for a third DDG 1000 destroyer from this year’s budget cycle, Maine’s Senate delegation has continued fighting for the ship. But the clock is ticking.

Even with the long odds the DDG 1000 program now faces on Capitol Hill, this fiscal year is still probably the Maine delegation’s best chance to get another destroyer. No matter which presidential candidate takes office early next year, neither seems likely to support the Navy’s current plans.

Although Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hasn’t spoken specifically about what defense programs he supports, he is already under pressure from congressional Democrats to make broad cuts in military spending. And his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, is on record specifically as being no fan of DDG 1000: “I’ve never heard of a $3 billion destroyer,” he has said.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/navy_winter_bathvisit_061708w/



uhc comment: No wonder McSame never heard of a $3,000,000,000 detroyer. This thing costs somewhere from $3,300,000,000 to $5,000,000,000 a pop -->
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=11549

[jimmil]

1. In the 70s and 80s I worked at Ingalls Shipbuilding

Building DDs and DGs. I was a scientific programmer/analyst and worked on things like missile fire control. It was really interesting work and fun. Sea trials were great. Of course, that was the time of cost overruns being the norm. I remember that at that moment there were several cost overruns dealing with the Keys Rigs for offshore drilling (jackup rigs) and these overruns somehow ended up on the Navy's dime. There were lots of other costs rolled into the building of a ship that I am sure goes on today.