Sunday Funnies

LCS: Stop Work Order

First of all, someone make sure Byron is sitting down and has his smelling-salts handy. Byron, there are a lot of folks that owe us a beer on this one.

Scrambling to regain control of Littoral Combat Ship program costs and forestall a congressional firestorm, Navy leaders have called for a temporary halt on construction on the third LCS while examining why cost growth on the first one has jumped as much as 86 percent.

A recent cost review of the USS Freedom showed that the estimated price had jumped from a planned $220 million to between $331 million and $410 million

BTW, that is for a ship without its "mission module" i.e. can't do a mission outside its basic kit.

“It appears that we’re having considerable cost overruns on it,” Delores Etter, the Navy’s top acquisition officer, told reporters Jan. 11. “We don’t know the numbers.”

Etter spoke a week after deciding to reassign the program executive officer for ships, Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, to a position outside the Naval Sea Systems Command. Sources said the reassignment was not due solely to problems with the Littoral Combat Ship.

Yes, something that I have asked a long time about: who has been fired? Someone please find a photo of RADM Hamilton and photoshop it to look like a head on a pike and email it to me; I would like to post it. (nothing personal sir, not even professional - you are a great Admiral and leader - and it may not be related at all - but a firing is needed, though it isn't your fault - you did the best with the hand you were delt. Others should fall first - but it is what it is) Ms. Etter - I hope you are next. If you don't know the numbers, who does? Her head on a virtual-pike as well.

CYA and fingerpointing is going on like mad here and here.

Although Navy officials declined to cite specific factors leading to price hikes on the Freedom, Lockheed spokesman Craig Quigley cited a number of reasons.

-- The first ship in a new class historically experiences cost increases as shipbuilders learn the best ways to build the ships. Quigley noted that numerous representatives from the Bollinger shipyard have been in Marinette “to learn those lessons so we don’t learn them again.”

-- Vendor issues. Quigley noted that mistakes by General Electric in manufacturing the ship’s reduction gears slowed the schedule. It was also tough to get the right kind of steel, which was also being ordered by the Army to up-armoring vehicles in Iraq.

--The Navy’s new Naval Vessel Rules, changed in 2004 to to standardize and strengthen ship construction requirements. Quigley said, “The tightened NVRs will make a tougher ship. But there is an impact on cost. It is particularly relevant when you’re adapting a commercial design to a naval warship.” Lockheed’s hull form is based on a large, commercial, Italian-designed yacht.

--A fast-track acquisition program that puts ships into production while design work still is going on. “The Navy and Lockheed Martin always knew this was going to be an element of moving a ship along this fast,” Quigley said.
...
According to Lockheed, several issues raised costs including incorrect reduction gears supplied by vendors, a six-month delay in receiving high-grade steal and the Navy's decision to apply standard vessel production rules when constructing the ships.
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"We believe these increased costs are due to an underestimation of labor hours," said Lt. John Gay, a spokesman for the Navy,
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According to Lockheed, several issues raised costs including incorrect reduction gears supplied by vendors, a six-month delay in receiving high-grade steal (sic) and the Navy's decision to apply standard vessel production rules when constructing the ships.

Oh, yes. "high-grade steal" indeed. Dr. Freud would be proud.

Oh, this is rich. Just priceless.

Lockheed declined to provide further comment on how much the company was over budget.

Quigley said preliminary estimates of the "stop work order" would cost the defense contractor roughly $14 million to manage the shut down and could lead to job cuts.

"We would likely seek to recover those costs from the Navy," said Quigley.

SECNAV Winter: Bravo Zulu; more heads please.

Big time Hat Tip to Eagle1.

Fat, drunk, and happy - how about you?

Reuters. They never pass up a chance to pi55 on your sneakers.

U.S. troops were fatter and drank harder in 2005 than before the Iraq war started, according a Pentagon survey of more than 16,000 service members released on Friday.

I know, they missed out on the happy part. That being said, as I am sure Skippy and I could tell you on day 2 of a top-shelf TAD to Singapore - having a BAC of 2.2 at 2am on a FRI telling half-true war stories to the likes of this and being a few pounds overweight does not mean you have one foot in the grave.

"I am pleased, and even a little surprised, that despite the stresses of war and ongoing deployments, nearly all indicators of service members' health and well-being continue to be quite good compared with civilian populations," said William Winkenwerder, assistant defense secretary for health affairs.

Ah, yes. There are worse lines of work.

Here, ruin your weekend

Over at The Corner, I think Mark Krikorian has officially thrown in the towel.

Since it seems fairly certain to me now that we're going to end up evacuating Baghdad's green zone from the embassy roof in helicopters, what I'm worried about is the much more significant "surge" we're going to have to deal with — Iraqi refugees, virtually all of them our Sunni enemies, being resettled by the hundreds of thousands in the United States.

And you thought the "Dog drank my Vodka in the Taxi" kerfuffle was bad.

Quitter.

He points the way to Thomas Friedman - who I rarely agree with - who mentions some a very small bit of common ground that I think we can agree on.

...tell Americans that you’re creating a $45-a-barrel floor price for imported oil, so investors can safely finance alternatives without worrying that they’ll be undercut by OPEC.

..almost. We could do a lot more - and better. Though I think California and Florida should join Louisiana in the offshore oil rig farming and we need more nuke plants and fewer natural gas plants - let's stick with the big piece of the pie - cars, trucks and getting to work on time.

Anyone that drives on a highway knows that, irrespective of your gas tax, that automobile gas power is heavily subsidized directly and indirectly. Offer a 100% sales tax rebate for each hybrid or alternative fuel automobile. In Europe outside the UK (see gas here and diesel here), diesel is less expensive. Why can't we make diesel less expensive here in the USA? Diesel gets better MPG (~30% better) and with modern engines, is not spewing filth like a '78 Olds. Support LNG cars by removing all federal tax from LNG - heck LPG and CNG as well.

Of course, I have my own personal solution. Ahem.

The above is a start. I don't know about you, but I am getting tired of sending my money to Hugo Chavez and the Saudi royal family.

Fullbore Friday

What is this ship doing?

That is thinking on your feet for the crew of the USS New Orleans (CA-32) after Battle of Tassafaronga.

In the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal at the end of November, New Orleans was severely damaged by a Japanese destroyer torpedo that sliced away her bow between the two forward gun turrets.

Read more here. A good lesson in that if you are not prepared to win, even a victory can be a loss.

Every man's worst nightmare

Personally, I thought all of them already had it.

Give her any date, she said, and she could recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, personal details of her life at that time, and major news events that occurred on that date. ... it became obvious that "the woman who can't forget" remembers trivial details as clearly as major events.
...
"Here's a woman who has very strong memories, but she has very strong memories of things for which I have no memory at all," McGaugh says.

Oh, I feel your pain.

The President's speech

Funky work hours in the taxpayer's service kept me from liveblog'n the speech - so if like me you missed it or need to see it again, via NRO, you can watch his speech below - read the txt from Drudge - or read the highlights of the strategery here.

As a bonus, head on over to Iraq the Model to hear about A-10s doing the Lord's work.

Nighty-night - and double down.