Winter remains unsatisfied with LPD 17

[unhappycamper]

Winter remains unsatisfied with LPD 17
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 17, 2008 18:28:30 EST

Navy Secretary Donald Winter said Monday he “continues to be unsatisfied” with the performance of the amphibious transport dock San Antonio, which has been sidelined by emergency repairs since Oct. 31.

But after a speech in which he described the need for accountability and a “culture of quality” for Navy acquisitions and its private-sector vendors, Winter did not commit to new changes or penalties for problems with the San Antonio and its follow-on siblings.

“I continue to be unsatisfied with the performance there,” Winter said. “We are continuing to look at it. It’s a matter I’ll be spending some time on over the next few weeks. We’ll adopt an appropriate course of action ahead.”

Winter’s comments came after an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, in which he described his view of the role the private sector should play in working with the military. Although he didn’t mention the San Antonio class by name, he said the oversight of shipbuilding projects is “not quite as good as what I would like” and should include a focus on quality control from the earliest design, not just when ships are taking shape in the yard.

He singled out one of the world’s biggest shipyards, Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea, as an example of a yard that had impressed him with its end-to-end quality. It builds more than 70 ships per year for private-sector and government clients, including South Korea’s version of the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/navy_winter_lpd17_111708w/%2e



uhc comment: Hey Donnie! Howse that Deepwater program goin? Ya got two $600,000,000 (only 400 million over budget) LCS boats. Ya got two $10,500,000,000 (yup, that's a b for billion) DDG-1000 destroyers. And of course this POS. I see it as 0 - 3.