Oops... we really blew the American taxpayer dollar on this military equipment.
Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, told Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in a July 1st letter that it might be wise to rebid contracts for the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program following continuing reports that LCS Independence has serious and expensive design and technical problems that threaten the performance of the ship.
Independence (LCS 2) is scheduled to operate out of San Diego, which is already home to another troubled ship, (LCS 1) Freedom. The vessels are part of a new type of ship that’s meant to improve the Navy’s ability to rapidly perform a variety of missions in comparatively shallow water.
“I strongly urge the Navy to immediately conduct a formal review of the entire LCS program, provide an assessment of the technical design flaws of the current fleet and determine the best way forward to include the possibility of rebidding this contract so that the program can be put back on a fiscally responsible path to procurement.”
The Navy is funding two different versions of LCS: The Freedom-class, led by Lockheed Martin-Marinette Marine, and the Independence, led by General Dynamics and Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. The Navy has already named the first eight vessels. Dozens of additional LCS vessels are scheduled to be built to replace the Navy’s aging Perry-class frigates.
There was no immediate response from Mabus, who said during a March 24th speech in Mobile that, “The LCS 2 that you (Austal and General Dynamics) have built here is out on sea trials right now and I can’t wait to get it deployed. The LCS that’s already been deployed in the Caribbean in the first three weeks seized over three tons of cocaine. And the reason that it did was, these drug runners’ fast boats would be going along and they’d see a Navy ship on the horizon, they’d see a gray hull and they’d just assume they could outrun it. Nope, couldn’t do it.”
Hunter paints a very different picture of the LCS program in his letter to Mabus, saying, “The Littoral Combat Ship program has faced yet another setback in a long line of contracting, design, and testing failures. In a statement by the Navy on June 23, 2011, it was revealed that diver inspections and ultrasonic tests conducted on LCS2, the USS Independence, ‘revealed aggressive galvanic corrosion pitting within all four of the water jet tunnels and water jet cone assemblies.’ This follows a March 18, 2011 report that LCS-1, the USS Freedom, had developed a crack in its hull during sea trials.
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