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Gotta say, we seem to have a severe problem with our floating (sometimes) service’s building and acquisitions group. The Littoral Combat ship cluster, the extended refurbs in port – if you could ever find a legit headline about the Navy getting something done ahead of time and under budget in the last (what, GENERATION\u00a0 or two?) you could shock all of us. Am I here to tell you of such a case? Well, regrettably….no.<\/p>\n
After Congress rejected the Navy’s 2012 proposal to retire its Ticonderoga-class cruisers, it provided funding for a 15-year ship modernization program. Since 2015, the Navy has spent roughly $3.7 billion of those funds trying to modernize seven cruisers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Doesn’t sound too bad – except after spending almost $2 billion of that on four ships that never made it back into the fleet.<\/p>\n
\nThe Navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruisers were the first warships to be equipped with the Aegis Combat System, an automated weapon control system designed to detect, track, and engage aerial, surface, and subsurface threats.<\/p>\n
These warships were equipped with 122 vertical missile launchers capable of launching Tomahawk missiles, among other weapons, forward and aft deck guns, and two close-in weapons systems.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Sounds relatively capable…it ain’t an Iowa-class battleship but ought to be able to inflict the hurt, right?<\/p>\n
In 2001, the Navy started work on a new cruiser as it prepared to phase out the Ticonderoga fleet. Nine years later, it abandoned the next-generation program and instead procured upgraded versions of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to fill the gap before the arrival of future destroyers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Singled out in the article were four ships: The Hue City, the Anzio, the Cowpens, and the Vicksburg.<\/p>\n
\nDespite allocating $161.15 million to upgrade the cruiser after entering the modernization program in 2018, the Navy decided to decommission the Hu\u00e9 City in 2022, before work even started.<\/p>\n
The service spent $250.54 million to upgrade the Anzio but later discontinued work on the ship due to cost overruns.<\/p>\n
The Navy invested $678.56 million to upgrade the Cowpens, but service officials inadequately managed the ship’s maintenance and upgrades. Properly repairing and modernizing the vessel would have cost another $88 million. The Cowpens was decommissioned in August after 33 years of service.<\/p>\n
The Navy decommissioned USS Vicksburg at the end of June after 32 years in the fleet. It was the first ship to undergo modernization in 2016. The Navy spent $745.05 million to upgrade the ship, but after the cruiser spent four years in the shipyard, the Navy found that the work was only 85% complete. Contractors dropped the ball on quality control while the Navy let maintenance slip to the point that key systems on the ship were simply not salvageable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I keep seeing a common theme… billions wasted,\u00a0 years to get work done, half-assed work when it is done, and general incompetent program management.\u00a0 You would almost think there was a group of military and contractors bent on solely making profits regardless of the detriment to our country…hmm, wonder what we would call them?<\/p>\n
Well, Mr. Trump – you want a target worthy of action? A bunch of prosecutions and courts-martials might do wonders.<\/p>\n
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