[T-Bone Texan]

"...Have to be hideously expensive to keep running, as often as they are in the yard...

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".

[bert]

——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

[Spktyr]

So are ours. Go look at the problems our DDG 1000 has.

[Spktyr]

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/