The march to the low 200s....

Money talks, ....

England, in his memo, directs the Navy to seek funding for two Littoral Ships in 2009 instead of the six planned, three in 2010 and 2011 instead of six each year and four instead of six in 2012. He directed the Navy to add one ship in 2013, raising the number that year to six.
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The U.S. military plans to delay its purchase of 11 warships now under development by Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.

The Navy planned to buy 32 of the new Littoral Combat Ships over the next five years and now will buy only 21... ``If the Navy doesn't keep this program on track, it will never get to its goal'' of building the U.S. fleet to 313 vessels from 280 today, said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

Yes, you heard it here first ... what a couple of years ago?

The Littoral Ship program has been ``burdened by big cost overruns and a controversial acquisition strategy'' that included use of shipyards that have no history of building warships, accelerated development and ``bypassing the Navy shipbuilding bureaucracy,'' Thompson said.
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the Navy has told Congress that the vessels could cost as much as $460 million apiece, more than double the initial estimate of $220 million.
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England approved adding a total of $2 billion in fiscal years 2009 through 2011 to allow the purchase in 2011 of two Northrop Grumman Corp. Virginia class submarines instead of just one, according to the document.

England approved adding $693 million through 2013 for the new Zumwalt class DDG-1000 destroyer to be built by Northrop and General Dynamics, bringing funding for its development to about $9.29 billion, the Navy's highest projected cost.

Oh, another thing that a Program Office spy indirectly sent my way. You know all that talk about "hybrid sailors" and outsourcing a lot of our maintenance to civilian contract and offboard shipyard work? Well, ahem - can you put them on a MV-22 and get them anywhere in the world - because this has maintenance nightmare written all over it.

(the) LCS 1 engineering plant ... is a CODAG. It has 29 line shaft bearings with a forced lube system...and that is the least complex aspect of the plant.

Byron? I know you are a Shipfitter and all, but .... do you want to be 12NM off Somalia when that goes Tango Uniform? Forget Hybrid Sailors, I want an old school EN1 who can take this thing apart and put it together again, blind and/or drunk. He doesn't need an Assoc. Degree, OOD qual, CMEO collateral duty, nut'n. Just covered with grease and nodd'n his head saying, "Give me 20 minutes - it will be work'n su'h."

All that speed and nowhere to go .....