Comments on: Congress Wastes Billions on Shipyard Pork

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 05 May 2005 21:36:10 +0000

If you read the latest GAO Report on Weapon Systems there would be a realization that you can't build DD(X) because the Technology is not Mature or is not ready. Also it would be more cost effective to just reactivate and modernize the two remaining Iowa Class Battleships. The Navy puts Battleship Reactivation at $230 Million each. Battleship O&M cost is $71M a year. That means you could operate a BB for 11 Years with a 3% Inflation Rate for 1 Billion Dollars.

Our Troops need Naval Gun Fire Support. This is the reason to build DDX. The cost effective option is to reactivate and modernize the Battleships.

By: Russell Newquist

Russell Newquist — Thu, 05 May 2005 16:03:36 +0000

The DOD does this all the time, and it's not to make constituents happy. There's a very, very real and potentially devastating strategic threat of losing vital technical skills if you allow certain groups to just up and go out of business. In the DOD contractor world, this is known often as "keep-alive funding" - the DOD will slip a project just enough funding to keep the key people around in case they need some more work from them, so that they don't lose access to very important skills. Yes, there are sound economic reasons for this, too. Yes, there are Congressmen playing pork politics. But it's very, very bad long-term strategy to allow our shipyard facilities to just up and disappear. There are reasons sometimes why the government can't be run like a business.

By: herb

herb — Thu, 05 May 2005 13:06:10 +0000

Any management team that single sources anything is foolish and will eventually end up paying higher prices for the product. The single source idea is "Just Bad Management".

By: Mikey

Mikey — Thu, 05 May 2005 11:35:59 +0000

That isn't a new practice, either. The first six frigates - Constitution, United States, President, Congress, Constellation, and Chesapeake - were each built in different shipyards.

By: BIGJIM.ORG

BIGJIM.ORG — Thu, 05 May 2005 02:25:12 +0000

Shipyard Pork
National politics hits home, OTB links to the Sun Herald story about protecting Mississippi's shipyard pork. The pork he refers to is prime rib in these parts. Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula is the largest employer on the coast and in the top 3 if n...