Thinking About Shipbuilding Costs

I have posted an article over on the USNI Blog to add context to shipbuilding costs. I would encourage anyone interested in shipbuilding costs of current programs or shipbuilding programs of the last few decades to take a look.

For those who read the information and want to do research, I highly recommend checking out the House Armed Service Committee's website and searching for all reports submitted in testimony by Eric Labs and Ronald O'Rourke, as well as checking out OpenCRS for more Ronald O'Rourke reports and CBOs website for more Eric Labs reports.

Those guys have published some very useful data over the years that helps add context to how much ships cost based on size. There are trends in Navy shipbuilding, smaller is more expensive and quantity reduces costs. When comparing platforms, try to always use figures for the same fiscal year. For that, you will need to find the latest DoD green book to convert current year to fiscal year when comparing numbers of different fiscal years.