Posted on 10/14/2015 10:28:12 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday blasted the Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program, saying its $4.7 billion cost overrun threatens to undermine the Navy’s aircraft carrier legacy.
“We simply cannot afford to pay $12.9 billion for a single ship,” McCain wrote in an 18-page report. “The combined $4.7 billion in cost growth on these first two ships has already not only eroded the buying power for remaining ships in the Ford-class, as it leaves less available for well as other critical military capabilities.”
The criticism comes in the form of McCain’s latest “America’s Most Wasted” report, a series where he details what he sees as government waste. The Ford-class carrier program has become a go-to criticism of McCain’s, who says it’s evidence of the overall flawed defense acquisition system. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this month, he called the program “one of the most spectacular acquisition debacles in recent memory.”
The program was first conceived in 2002 as a way to replace the Navy’s existing fleet of 1970s Nimitz-class carriers. When Congress approved the first ship in 2007, it was expected to be ready in 2015 and cost $10.5 billion.
Fast-forward to 2015, and the first ship is expected to be ready in May 2016 and cost $12.9 billion.
The second ship was originally expected to be ready in 2019 and cost $9.2 billion. It’s now slated to be done in 2024 and cost $11.4 billion.
The Navy has said time and cost increases are a result of technology and design issues when the contract was awarded, according to McCain’s report.
McCain reiterated his belief that the overrun is symptomatic of a larger problem.
“A decade of oversight reporting show that CVN 78 has been plagued by the same problems found throughout Navy shipbuilding and, indeed, most major defense acquisition programs,” he wrote, using another name for the first ship. “Unrealistic business cases, poor cost estimates, new systems rushed to production, concurrent design and construction, and problems testing systems to demonstrate promised capability. All of these problems have been made worse by the absence of competition in aircraft carrier construction.”
In his conclusion, McCain called for the Defense Department to test to make sure the first ship will have its promised capabilities and to commit to keeping the second ship within cost caps.
“Finally,” he wrote, “the department must study alternatives to the aircraft carrier to ensure we are getting the best capability while most effectively allocating our scarce resources.”
And Congress authorized every dime.
From the knucklehead that burned down the Forrestal.....
You’d almost conclude from this that McCain has never served a day in Congress. Smells like The Limbaugh Theorem at work.
If the defense contractor says they can deliver a unit for x amount of dollars, shouldn’t they be made to eat the cost overruns?
Especially if it isn't being built in Arizona...
/s
McCain has wasted far more than 4 billion in unconstitutional spending EVERY YEAR.
Mothball McCain in 2016.
Gee John you have been a Senator, how did you miss it all these years
it’s like pre ordering a car for 40k, then being told there were problems with the new transmission, so it will be an extra 5k.
It isn’t like McCain cheated on his first wife and kids with Cindy, then dumped her for Cindy.
It isn’t like he got the most money from Keating out of the Keating five, and Cranston was forced to resign for taking much less.
It isn’t like he sided with Vietnam against veterans groups and the families of our POWs.
It isn’t like he formed a corporation with the help of Soros, Terressa Heinz Kerry, and the Tides foundation, and hired in his campaign staff for six figure salaries.
It isn’t like Ted Kennedy was his bosom buddy.
It isn’t like he joined Ted to submit legislation that would have legalized all illegal aliens and granted them amnesty.
It isn’t like he joined other Democrats to defeat Bush policy and ram through unconstitutional campaign finance reform.
It isn’t like he advocated for and got our president to arm and fund the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda, and possibly even elements of ISIS.
Oh wait, it’s exactly like all that. (and much much much more)
This is one guy that is as bad as it gets.
4.7 Billion shucks John Hillary misplaced 6 billion all by herself.
If the defense contractor says they can deliver a unit
The problem is the unit is never finished as alterations and mission changes are continually made until the unit is on line. Then the retrofitting begins.
No, it’s like ordering a car for $40K, then going back to the dealer over and over again with new specs and complaining that it costs $5K more than you were told when it finally rolls off the line.
THAT sounds more correct. Happened way too many times with F35, it seems.
Though in some cases it did seem the final product was flawed in some way and government paid to fix flaw.
but you are right in majority of cases.
That $4.7 billion went into the pockets of workers and shopkeepers and stimulated the overall economy, thus it was money well spent. #thingsakeynsianwouldsay
And it isn't like he justified CFR by claiming that "good government is more important than free speech".
But he did.
Just wondering how much Juan wasted on arming terrorists
But $250m plus for an aircraft is acceptable.
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