LCS-1 Spirals Out of Control... Again!?!

You have got to be kidding me...

This story has some history. It started on April 15th. This was reported in a DefenseNews article dated April 16th, written by Christopher P. Cavas:

"We're on track for trials beginning in May. We're on track for a summer 2008 delivery," said Diana Massing, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin.

The Freedom is about 82 percent complete, Allison Stiller, the Navy's top shipbuilding official, told the U.S. Senate on April 8. "She'll go to builders' trials here in May."

There was a bit more on April 17th, and today is June 3rd. The big news out of Marinette Marine is that the Superintendent of Tests and Trials quit today. This bit of news comes courtesy of Tim Colton, who has 50 years in the shipbuilding industry, and who is also observing what we would have discussed yesterday had it not been our anniversary. Tim unloads:

On April 17, the Navy and Lockheed Martin joined forces to dispute my suggestion that there was no chance of LCS 1 being delivered this summer, or even this year.

“We’re on track for trials beginning in May. We’re on track for a summer 2008 delivery,” said Diana Massing, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin. “LCS 1 starts builder’s trials next month and is scheduled to deliver in August 2008,” declared Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a Navy spokesman.

Well, let's see. The machinery trials are now scheduled for July, builder's trials for August, acceptance trials for September and delivery for October, so that's a slip of three months just since six weeks ago. At that rate, they are on track for delivery some time next summer. If they "deliver" this year, you can bet that it will be an incomplete ship. Has anyone been fired yet?

Lets review the facts. First, Ms. Allison F. Stiller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ships, Department of the Navy, told the Senate on April 8th that builders trials for LCS-1 would begin in May. That didn't happen. Will the Senate care? The Senate version of FY09 Defense bill was a business as usual bill, basically giving the Navy everything it wanted without much discussion. Considering Senator Kennedy is in the hospital while McCain and Clinton are still campaigning, it is very unlikely the Senate Armed Forces Committee will even care.

It has certainly been hard to see any indication from the Senate that they care about anything other than their own political careers, McCain and Clinton leading the way, with Olympia Snowe not far behind.

Second, what Diana Massing told Christopher P. Cavas was a load of company crap. While it is easy to be distracted by the problems in the Navy, maybe Chris might need a third part to his recent editorial series that addresses the ridiculous behavior of the Defense Industry. If he is looking for an angle, he could start by observing how Lockheed Martin was credited by the USNI for giving one of the largest donations to the USNI this year (p 136, May 2008 Proceedings), which might explain their extraordinary access to dispute any criticism of the Littoral Combat Ship program in the pages of Proceedings. What does it say when the"Independent Forum" Proceedings sells out its own printed opinions by giving Lockheed Martin preference in the comments to defend its program? Nothing good about the editor, unless its all about the money.

One would think with all of the focus on the Littoral Combat Ship, with the engagements promised by the Navy to insure quality and control of schedule, that if schedules started to slip the PEOs would have all the answers. Tim Colton has offered a time line, should be easy enough to confirm it or not.

Although the question to be asked, preferably by someone in Congress... would be who do you trust now? Can't wait to find out how much all of this is costing us taxpayers. Clearly the bid submissions aren't the LCS news of the week.