Troubled $29 Billion U.S. Warship Sows Fresh Doubt on Worth - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/navy-s-troubled-littoral-combat-ship-at-crossroads-gao-says
The U.S. Navy’s #Littoral_Combat_Ship program “stands at a crossroads,” as the service prepares to ask Congress to authorize spending as much as $14 billion to buy more of the troubled vessels, congressional auditors say.
Congress must decide “whether a ship that costs twice as much yet delivers less capability than planned warrants an additional investment,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Thursday as the Senate Armed Services Committee met to review the $29 billion program.
The Navy plans to ask early next year for authorization to build the final 12 of 40 ships as well as equipment for missions. Those final ships are described as “frigates” that will be better-armed than the existing designs.
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“The taxpayers have paid for — and are still paying for — 26 ships that have demonstrated #next-to-no_combat_capability,” McCain, an Arizona Republican, said in opening Thursday’s hearing. Calling it an “all too common example of defense acquisition gone awry,” McCain said Congress has continued to fund the ships even though lawmakers have raised questions about it since the first funds were sought in 2002.
#LCS