On Second Thought...

In a move Wired called, "[an] outbreak of common sense in the Navy's former fantasyland," the Navy wants out of the DDG-1000 destroyer program. Two have been funded and construction has begun on the first one, so--if the Navy gets its way--we'll only procure two of them.

[Very accurate concept art: two DDG-1000s. Only two.]

I've never been a fan of this program for various reasons, so I'm happy. I think it's great that the Navy, after having defended the multi-billion dollar warships to Congress only four months ago, did an abrupt about-face and told Congress last week that it no longer feels that it really needs them. This move was a huge "FUCK YOU!" to the administration (who has been pitching a tent over this thing since Rumsfeld came in and scrapped previous plans for this class), Congress (who have been covering for the gross failures and cost overruns by shipbuilders), and the shipbuilders (who have been drooling over this potential cash cow for a decade).

The Navy says that, when asked, admirals stated they would prefer 8 DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers to 2 DDG-1000 destroyers. Of the many reasons cited, the DDG-51's advanced theater ballistic missile defense capabilities, extreme reliability, and versatility ranked the highest. So the Navy is asking Congress to fund 8 more DDG-51s, and has stated that any more DDG-1000s should be built only if Congress increases the Navy's shipbuilding budget (which has been frozen for years now) appropriately. In other words, the Navy doesn't want to pay for them out of its current budget. At ~$4 billion a copy, who can blame them.

[The ship you'll see the most if you go to any Navy base: the DDG-51s. We have 56, with 6 more coming and, now, 8 more proposed.]

Meanwhile, it's bad news-ok news for the Navy's other new warship program, the LCS. Mobile, AL shipbuilder Austal is in deep shit with the Navy for it's lack of auditing during construction of General Dynamics' prototype.

[The cooler-looking General Dynamics LCS. Made in Alabama. Once. Eventually.]

Also bad for Our Fair State, Israel picked GD's competitor's ship.

[Two Lockheed Martin LCSs, which is what we should have gotten for the cost of the first one. Israel wants four.]

The good news is that both LCS prototypes should be in sea trials later this year, and their much-touted interchangeable "mission modules" are finally starting to near completion.