CNO reads some more CDR Salamander...

....and a little of Galrahn as well, ...... perhaps ...

The US Navy's top officer has warned that the skyrocketing costs of designing and building cutting-edge warships - a problem that has plagued some shipbuilding programs in recent years - could hamper the service's ability to obtain the fleet it needs to defend American interests as well as deter China and other rising naval powers.

Admiral Gary Roughead, who took over as chief of naval operations in September, said in a recent interview that the Navy should expand its fleet from 280 ships to 316 in the coming decades.

Here is a key point,

"We have to do all we can to make sure we are setting the requirements right - that we are not just putting things on that we want - [and] that we monitor the cost and construction in such a way that we don't lose control over that cost and we are able to deliver the ships to the country."

CNO, if I may humbly suggest, you can start by firing more SES who have a fetish for Transformationalism, Bu11sh1t Bingo, and PPT Programs - and then play Gen. Marshall and have a Valentine's Day Massacrer of SES and Flag Officers who are responsible for this mess so others can come in to support a program to put more ships pierside. National Security Frigate, EuroFrigate, or LCS-I; something to fill the breach until we can come up with an effective indigenous Corvette to Frigate sized ship - and do it along the lines that got us the FFG-7 class.

Will you drive an evolutionary follow-on to the Arleigh Burke class, or will we follow the outline provided by Proverbs 26:11? There are hints that you are looking evolutionary (off the gilded DDG-100) for CG(X) to recapture some of that development cost (smart),

...the Navy now estimates that each Zumwalt destroyer will cost more than $3 billion, well over earlier estimates of $2 billion per ship.

Several years ago, the Navy had planned to purchase at least 30 of the warships but the high cost has led the Pentagon to reduce the order to just seven.
...
Roughead said the service is studying the possibility of designing a new cruiser, known as the CG(X), that could use many of the same technologies developed for the Zumwalt with the hope that doing so will "mitigate the risk" of building the new warship. But figuring out ways to keep construction and operating costs down is considered paramount, he said.

Spruance is to Tico what Zumwalt is to CG(X)? We'll see. BTW, it rolled of the page real fast, so if you did not get a chance to see Saturday's shipbuilding post (with graphs!), click here.