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Posted on 07/27/2024 8:27:01 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
The Constellation-class frigate seemed like a safe bet for a service desperate for a procurement win. Wanting a frigate after the failure of the Littoral Combat Ship and the retirement of the last ships of the Oliver Hazard Perry (OHP) class, the U.S. Navy decided to hedge its bets by going with a proven design, the European Multipurpose Frigate (FREMM) proposed by Fincantieri Marine Group and operated by both France and Italy. The ‘Connies’ were supposed to be an easy win, but unfortunately, the program has strayed into the kind of trouble that seems to follow the U.S. Navy wherever it goes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...
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Great post!
My first ship was the USS JOHN L. HALL FFG 32. We were referred to as missle sponges because we placed ourselves between the bad guys and the carrier. It was a good boat and even better crew.
Utterly deranged for the US Navy to be buying a European frigate. No
After the Ford class, the Zumwalt class, and the idiotic LCS program, the Navy has clearly lost its ability to design good warships.
The purpose of the US military has not been what you think it should be for a long long time under presidents from both parties.
The troubles of the Russian navy need to be taken into consideration.
Radical changes in ship design are necessary.
We can’t even keep the Red Sea safely open.
“Concurrent construction means that the Constellation herself is being built even as she is being designed...”
Start & stop change orders galore.
The ‘Connies’ were supposed to be an easy win, but unfortunately, the program has strayed into the kind of trouble that seems to follow the U.S. Navy wherever it goes.
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And the DHS’ US Coast Guard trying to build heavy Ice Breakers - they want a ship that can travel from the Arctic to the Antarctic, which means a drastic hull configuration, limiting their capabilities far below any Russian breaker. Not to mention, they have fallen years behind and cost overruns are eating them alive
Since McNamara’s cost plus contracting overhaul the primary skill set of every defense contractor has been strategic incompetence.
There is simply no incentive to succeed.
Cost went from $800 million to $1.3 billion and the top speed reduced to < 25 knots. Good job Navy. Who is losing their job over this?
Just another growing list of US military waning. F-35’s that are down 50 percent of the time, inability to develop hypersonics, ( the two last attempts failed), severe declining of manpower, wokeism embedded in the DOD and Pentagon, weak, very weak manufacturing base, ……the list is growing each day.
The positive? An inability to continue their forever wars. Every one of the war cheerleaders planned wars ( China, Ukraine, Iran, etc.) are not the hill to die on.
Build the Montana class for the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab.
That's what fast BBs are for.
the Navy has clearly lost its ability to design good warships.
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True, but that’s because the Navy now designs ships by committees - such that each design has all the latest bells and whistles, while able to preform all missions simultaneously and cost more than the already exorbitant money allocated, launching them years after the scheduled dates.
Fixed price contracts were tried in the past and they've failed as well. Basically, you're asking someone to guess just how long it will take them to invent something, then halfway through the government inevitably changes their mind and tells them to morph their invention into a different invention. It had problems.
Been there suffered through that!
7,000 tons and no ballistic missile defense = complete boondoggle.
I was a program manager on a Navy project. It peripherally involved with the LCS. I interfaced with a lot of Navy personnel, and they knew what they were doing...very competent. When I asked about the multiple decisions that gave us LCS every one of them knew the decisions were bad and said so. According to them, all those decisions came from one admiral who had a bee up his bum that the LCS was going to put him in the history books. He didn’t listen to any of the contrary reports or information. (All of which turned out to be correct.)
The idea of the new frigate was to leverage off an existing design because we needed to catch up due to spending so many assets on LCS. What did the Navy do? They immediately made massive changes in the frigate design adding risks and cost, thus negating the whole reason for buying a foreign design that already existed and was well proven.
I think the Navy lacks competent oversight. It’s not a competence problem lower down. It’s massive, massive egos wanting to put their personal stamp on something they really shouldn’t be allowed to touch.
Sometimes you just need a ship that’s good enough. You don’t need a ship that can do absolutely everything at fifty times the cost of good enough. The Navy needs some competent oversight from someone with a rolled-up newspaper who can slap an admiral across the head.
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