Scratch one more ship funded from the 313-ship fleet. For the third time since April 2007, a Littoral Combat Ship previously funded by Congress has been canceled, and funds will pay for cost overruns.
The U.S. Navy on Thursday said it would amend an ongoing competition between Lockheed Martin Corp and General Dynamics Corp to add three shore-hugging littoral combat ships in fiscal year 2010.Here is how it happened.
The Navy said it would delete from the competition a ship it had hoped to buy with fiscal 2008 funds, in line with direction given by Congress in the fiscal 2009 defense spending bill. But Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Victor Chen said the service still planned to award a contract to each of the companies for a second LCS ship in 2009.
"The Navy intends to award one ship to each industry team in FY09 and hold a concurrent competition for three additional ships in FY10," Chen said in a statement.
Congress last month passed an appropriations bill that deleted 2008 funding for one LCS ship, and said the Navy could use that money to pay for anticipated cost overruns on the two ships in the budget for 2009.This program continues to go the wrong direction. Amazing we didn't hear about this until now.
Note also the announcement that Freedom is overweight by four percent is #2, which is not good news at all considering that leaves absolutely no growth margin for the mission modules that actually make this ship useful. All that space on these ships, and one wonders how much it can really carry due to weight.
If bad news comes in three's, I can't wait to see #3.
By the way, subtract one more ship from the Bush administration, 46 not 47, and at the current rate, write that number down in pencil. Clinton 40, Bush 46.
Told ya CDR, 200 was too high. 150 ship Navy here we come.
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