Northrop Grumman's Confidence Building Initiatives For Shipbuilding

If Northrop Grumman is trying to inspire confidence in Naval shipbuilding, this doesn't help. If you were NGSS, how would you handle a fairly stable, evolutionary design and shipbuilding construction project?

Something tells me this wouldn't be the best approach. SECNAV and Congress should ask some questions, and if they aren't sure which questions to ask, Tim has a few good questions to start with.

NEWPORT NEWS TO BUILD FRONT HALF OF LHA 6. There don't seem to have been any formal announcements, but it appears that Newport News is going to build the front half of LHA 6, as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. They are advertising for planners: check here. Oh, great. I suppose this is because Newport News is running out of work, because the CVN and SSN programs are being dragged out by lack of funding. Of course, there's no reason why this shouldn't work but it fills me feelings of dread. Questions for the Navy: If this makes sense, why didn't they compete the LHA program? Why couldn't Newport News build the whole ship? And all the follow ships too, for that matter? NGSS could benefit from scaling back a bit, given the severe shortage of shipyard workers all across the Gulf Coast, and then they could concentrate on doing things right for a change. January 2, 2008.

Ya it might work, but it seems to me this would be a bad time to start adding extra risk to shipbuilding projects. If the Navy wants to take risks, they can afford to on inexpensive projects like the LCS, but not on the first in class of the second most expensive, second largest ship in the fleet.

What is that I see on the horizon? Looks like an early red flag for naval shipbuilding in 2008.