Posted on 12/12/2015 5:18:54 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship would be ineffective at hunting for mines because an underwater drone made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that’s supposed to find them often fails to work, the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office found.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
ping
That is $46.6 M *per* drone. And they don't work. At what point does this become treason?
Most recently, the drones failed 14 times over 300 hours in a five-month round of preliminary trials at sea that ended Aug. 30, according to the data. Crippled drones were towed to port seven times, and the intense combat testing required for increased purchases has been delayed. The Navy plans to spend $864 million buying 54 drones from Lockheed, the biggest U.S. contractor.
The drone failures add to previous questions about how much value the U.S. will get from what's now supposed to be a $23 billion program to build 32 2 Littoral Combat Ships in two versions made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed and Austal Ltd. based in Henderson, Australia. Both versions depend on the drones to detect mines from a safe distance. ...
Further, the Littoral Combat Ship's separate, airborne-based AN/ASQ-235 mine neutralization system currently can't disable "most of the mines contained in the Navy's own real-world threat scenarios," Rankine-Galloway said. The system, which would be deployed on MH-60S helicopters, is intended to destroy the mines found by the drones.
Dunno. What happened to the developers of the early WWII torpedoes?
WWI torpedoes were better made, and the Pacific War (in particular) could have been much shorter.
Give me a “C” Vanna
Every generation of weapons renders the previous generation obsolete.
That’s why we keep them secret as long as possible.
Every generation of weapons renders the previous generation obsolete.
That’s why we keep them secret as long as possible.
They have been redesignated as frigates. The FFG-7s were better than this. They worked.
I think you answered your own question. NEVER
“Lockheed, the biggest U.S. contractor”
Too important to fail. The kick backs to politicians and bureaucrats on $864,000,000.00, even in 2015 inflated dollars is pretty important to the recipients.
The McNamera idea is apparently still in play. If you try to build a ship with multiple mission capability, something will be compromised. In a worse case scenario you end up with lots of money wasted and a resulting ship that will always be limited.
It’s actually $16 million per drone, still a whopping amount of money.
The analogy to early World War II torpedoes is perhaps misapplied. The programmatic problem with World War II torpedoes was inadequate testing. Once combat had revealed the problems that testing should have, the shipyard at Pearl Harbor performed their own tests and was able to identify the problems and fix them relatively cheaply and easily.
The problem with these drones may be resolved by tweeking a few software parameters, or the concept may be flawed and the whole program is a waste of taxpayer money. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.
That is reportedly the USS Milwaukee being towed. Here is the Navy times story:
http://scoopdeck.navytimes.com/2015/12/12/the-navys-newest-ship-breaks-down-limps-into-port/
Got a link for the Zumwalt towed story?
Go to navytimes.com
Dang, the Merrimack broke down?
Yep, ran over the Monitor’s tow line and blew its engine.
In any case, a different ship than the littorals in this article.
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