Pentagon Blocks Littoral Combat Ship Cost Overrun Info From a GAO Report

gCaptain ^ | March 6, 2017 | Tony Capaccio

[artichokegrower]

The Pentagon office that reviews information to determine whether it’s classified has blocked publication of potentially embarrassing data on cost overruns for the first two vessels bought under the Navy’s primary Littoral Combat Ship contracts, according to a new congressional audit.

[artichokegrower]

Over a decade, the vessels went from an estimated cost of $220 million per ship to an average currently of $478 million apiece, according to the GAO.

I can understand why they would want to keep this secret.

[headstamp 2]

Littoral Combat Silkworm Magnets.

[allendale]

Large capital ships are an outmoded concept. In an era of stealthy supersonic missiles and equally stealthy long range “seagull” drones, despite the best defensive weapons available, no large surface ship once located can survive a determined attack from a technologically competent enemy. The dirty little secret is that once the Iranians fortified the shores of the narrow , shallow Persian gulf with state of the art stealthy Chinese made shore to ship missiles ( featuring an American designed encrypted guidance system courtesy of the Clinton Administration), the stationing of big US Navy capital ships in the Gulf was not tenable. If actual shooting had started, the US Navy faced a debacle worse than Pearl Harbor in less than fifteen minutes. Hard but necessary fact to understand.

[lacrew]

Are you saying that carrier groups are outdated? If so, what’s the fallback?

[husky ed]

They could build a thousand Destroyer Escorts (the type from WWII), for the cost of one of these turds.
Plus you know they could survive in battle.

Ed

[ClearCase_guy]

I’d still like to see “rods from God” as an orbital weapon.

I support a quasi-isolationist policy whereby we don’t mess with other countries and they don’t mess with us. If anyone crosses an international border or blocks an international sea lane in a manner which directly affects the interests of the US, I’d like a big kinetic weapon to hit them 5 minutes after the transgression. Cities? Armies? Naval Task Forces? All of these would be vulnerable.

Cost to the US would be relatively light. No need for boots on the ground outside CONUS.

And if kinetic bombardment is insufficient, nuke ‘em.

I’d support a navy that deals with pirates — but if a foreign power wants to go toe-to-toe with us, they should talk to our orbital weaponry.

[Red Badger]

That’s okay, the GAO can just ask the Russians for the data...............

[DCBryan1]

And if kinetic bombardment is insufficient, nuke ‘em.

Sending a depleted uranium pellet the sized of a starbucks venti coffee into the atmosphere as a KE round at around 10,000-30,000+ MPH at 90 degree angle might as well be a sub kiloton nuke.

[ClearCase_guy]

Yup.

Kinetic bombardment is good because it breaks a lot of things. And if that isn’t sufficient, we escalate with the addition of radioactive fallout. No one wants that.

So ... countries ought to sit up and take notice when we send some KE rounds. Because the next step in the process is supremely unpleasant. So “surrender now”.

I believe in winning wars. I do not believe in struggles that last for 15-years and end in something like a tie. I also don’t believe in being the world’s policeman and sticking our nose into every little problem. I don’t expect the US to have “little problems”. And I expect us to deal with “big problems” in an extremely decisive manner.

[rxsid]

"Large capital ships are an outmoded concept. In an era of stealthy supersonic missiles and equally stealthy long range “seagull” drones, despite the best defensive weapons available, no large surface ship once located can survive a determined attack from a technologically competent enemy."

The same could have been said prior to WWII. Those capital ships are too big, too slow for torpedo planes, subs, etc. Numerous carriers (from at least 3 nations) were sunk during that war, yet development and building continued long after.

[allendale]

If Samuel Morison were alive today, he would inevitably argue that a great power can be a great power only if it has a formidable navy to project that power. Yet Morison was keenly aware how technological advances affected tactical and strategic realities. He would insist that a Flag officer must consider and answer the question posed in the sentence you highlighted if he wished to be successful in his mission and cared about the sailors he commanded.Not sure in today’s politically correct military such questions are answered honestly.

[Oztrich Boy]

That’s the whole idea behind the LCS, they will be sunk but fewer sailors will be killed.