I like that they are expensive to maintain. It serves our interests.
When I read about the successor system I thought "great, have fun with that, and have fun paying for that".
——I like that they are expensive to maintain-—
The ship is a jobs program. Maintenance provides jobs.
In a warless economy, defense maintenance jobs are very desirable
So are ours. Go look at the problems our DDG 1000 has.
Or the massive, expensive problems with the LCS: http://www.navytimes.com/pay-benefits/military-benefits/2016/09/05/navy-orders-big-changes-for-littoral-combat-ships-after-engineering-problems/