Two Navy Ships That Cost $300 Million Headed To The Scrapyard Without Having Seen A Day Of Service

Business Insider ^ | 07/15/2011 | Robert Johnson

[SeekAndFind]

Embroiled by legal battles for more than 25 years, two U.S. Navy ships are finally headed to the scrap heap without ever having sailed and despite the fact that they're almost completely finished.

According to Hampton Roads, the USNS Bejamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford were commissioned in 1985 at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co. to carry fuel to the Navy's fleet around the globe.

When the company defaulted on its Navy contract in 1989 the 660-foot ships were sent to Florida for completion, but cost disputes terminated that contract in 1993. Since then, the vessels have sat 95 and 84 percent complete at the mouth of the James River as part of the mothballed ghost fleet.

In 1997, the Navy cut its ties and British company Able UK considered re-commissioning them for international sale to a NATO country.

[Texas Eagle]

'Course they'll need to be completely sanitized before they can be scrapped.

The decommissioning costs will probably dwarf the construction costs.

[Amberdawn]

A shame and a waste.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’m so glad that our government is such a good steward of our very hard earned tax payments. Makes me proud to have such good contracting skill and common sense in our DOD.

[GeronL]

Aren’t you glad the government never misspends money?

//sarcasm

[ColdOne]

What a waste.

[nascarnation]

China needs scrap badly.
Hopefully we get a good price / ton.

[pabianice]

Isherwood

[GeronL]

These were fuelers.... you would think that some country would be interested in them. oh well.

[GeronL]

“sold for scrap” means the government paid this company $10M to cut them up.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

China needs scrap badly.

-

Floating casino I presume.

How about we stop sending assets to China, and reverse that.

[Texas Eagle]

“sold for scrap” means the government paid this company $10M to cut them up.

LOL.

[oyez]

No money will be returned to the U.S. treasury.

I'm sure some body's personal treasury benefited quite well because of theses boats.

[rodguy911]

We can sink it, use it as an artificial wreck down here for two mill.....

[the invisib1e hand]

it’s not digging holes and filling them up again...yet it is.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: What a waste.

I’m for a strong defense. But if this isn’t a glaring example of why we ought to be carefully auditing our Defense spending, I don’t know what is.

[Bean Counter]

Maritime Law is a frickin’ mess, and when you add in a US Government Defense contract on top of it, it can take decades to untie the knots.

What amazes me is that these are two of the most recent additions to the James River fleet, and there are many other vessels in a lot worse shape than these that ought to head to the scrapyards first.

I imagine these will be towed to Pakistan or India and run up on the beach for scrapping....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ein5dj-Dc-w

[Mr. Jazzy]

They should rename them the Clinton and Obama, after our two african american Presidents.

[FreeAtlanta]

Corrupt leftist (democrats) probably fear the decision will get reversed. A retired navy captain told me about the scrapping of our Virginia class nuclear powered cruisers by Clinton and his fellow American hating lefties. It infuriated him. He said they were perfect escorts for our carriers. If you need your blood pressure raised... Virginia Class Cruisers

[Squantos]

Precedent Erkel Mugabe will no doubt offer em to the Afghanistan Navy....