Gates: U.S. must rethink expensive ships, EFV

[unhappycamper]

Gates: U.S. must rethink expensive ships, EFV
By John T. Bennett - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 3, 2010 16:11:48 EDT

Pentagon and naval officials must decide whether to keep buying multibillion-dollar warships, since the Navy’s shipbuilding budget is unlikely to grow amid economic uncertainty and two wars, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

Gates raised eyebrows at a Navy League-sponsored conference in National Harbor, Md., by questioning, among other things, whether the United States will need 11 carrier strike groups when no other nation has more than one.

“At the end of the day, we have to ask whether the nation can really afford a Navy that relies on $3 (billion) to $6 billion destroyers, $7 billion submarines and $11 billion carriers.” the secretary said. “Mark my words, the Navy and Marine Corps must be willing to reexamine and question basic assumptions in light of evolving technologies, new threats and budget realities.

“We simply cannot afford to perpetuate a status quo that heaps more and more expensive technologies onto fewer and fewer platforms — thereby risking a situation where some of our greatest capital expenditures go toward weapons and ships that could potentially become wasting assets,” he said to a silent luncheon crowd.

Gates sent a shot across the bow of the Marine Corps’ troubled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program, saying it is time to “take a hard look” at the kind of platform needed for ship-to-shore maneuvers, “and how many.”


unhappycamper comment: I agree with Gates on this one. Want to see some of your tax dollars at work?



$706 million dollars Fortunately the DoD canceled the $466,000 NLOS missles that didn't work. Unfortunately they only have a five inch popgun on the foredeck. And it costs more than three times as originally estimated.




$1.8 billion dollars




$2.8 billion dollars And we buy two of these each and every year.




$11.5 billion dollars Minus planes planes and people.



FWIW, we are spending over $200,000 dollars a minute (yup, a minute) in the Middle East.