Skelton: Navy must end ship debates soon

[unhappycamper]

Skelton: Navy must end ship debates soon
Staff report
Posted : Tuesday Mar 3, 2009 16:25:35 EST

The Navy must make a final decision this year about how many and what kind of surface ships it wants, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.

Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, a Democrat, told the American Shipbuilding Association that he didn’t know yet what this year’s shipbuilding request would include, but that the Navy couldn’t afford to wait longer before settling on a course for what new warships to build.

“The debate about the future surface Navy needs to end this year. A decision needs to be made. After a decision is made that both the Department (of the Navy) and the Congress can support, we need to fund the surface construction program at the level necessary to restore our fleet,” Skelton said. “Whether that number is 313 ships or 340 ships, we need to get there.”

Skelton said he thought the Navy should try to buy 10 ships this year, but that it should be sure they were “the right 10 ships.” The U.S. can’t afford to build all the ships the Navy wants in its 30-year plan, he said, which means the service must place a high priority on efficiencies and economies.

“We would like the Navy to do what the Navy keeps saying makes the most sense: build affordable ships which leverage on commonality with other ship programs, and build them in numbers that allow for economies of purchase and investment in infrastructure,” Skelton said.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_skelton_shipbuilding_030309w/%2e



uhc comment: Some of the more recent additions to the fleet include:

two Littoral Combat Ships at $600 million dollars a pop
two Zumwalt destroyers at $5.3 billion dollars a pop
the last Nimitz-class carrier at $6.3 billion a pop (minus people and airplanes)

and of course, the new Ford-class carriers at $11+ billion a pop (minus people and airplanes)

[Sherman A1]

1. My idea....

No more boats for the boys for the forseeable future. They can get along with what they have now and what is on the way. Time to tighten up that budget as well... Just who are we going to fight?


Does Al Qaeda have a navy?

[Captain Hilts]

2. The USN has the smallest # of hulls since before the First World War.

GWB dramatically cut the size of the Navy. At one point, the Navy had to get rid of 30,000 sailors in three years.

The navy isn't being built to fight Al Qaeda. It's to fight Russia and China.

[Sherman A1]

4. That may very well be true,

but how many Carrier Strike Groups can the Russians or the Chinese deploy either alone or in concert? How many submarines can they deploy either alone or in concert? Russia has a strong naval tradition, but just how many ships do we expect them to be able to put to sea? China has such a mish mash of types from all over the world do we really expect them to be able to work in concert, do they really qualify as a blue water navy or more of a regional power? Certainly they are rebuilding, but just how many CSG's do we need to project power against these possible adversaries?

[Captain Hilts]

3. I thought the littoral combat ship got cancelled. Can someone 'splain what happened to me?

[unhappycamper]

5. I think the LCS is a dead duck

but I did see something the other day about resuming the Zumwalt destroyers. And nobody's talking about the cost of the new Ford-class carries.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Then why are they still buying LCS? To sell to foreign navies? The Ford is NOT worth it.

The NIMITZ is a great design that can be updated - electric drive is something they want, for example.

The BURKEs also seem to do well.

[unhappycamper]

7. Where did you see that the LCS was still being produced? n/t