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Rep.: Get LCS costs under control By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Mar 10, 2009 17:32:25 EDT
The Navy must shape up management of its over-budget, past-schedule Littoral Combat Ship program or risk it being eliminated in the coming era of budget austerity, lawmakers said Tuesday.
“Everyone should understand that the current situation of these vessels costing in excess of half a billion dollars cannot continue,” said Rep. Gene Taylor, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the seapower subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.
“There are too many other needs and too little resources to pour money into the program that was designed to be affordable. I would also like to remind all of the parties involved that, particularly right now, you don’t want to be the program that is breaking the bank,” Taylor said.
Other members of the seapower subcommittee, including its ranking Republican, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, urged the Navy to nail down a strategy for spending less on the LCS fleet it wants.
There has been no official word about cuts to defense programs generally or Navy programs in particular, but Congress and the Obama administration, weary from spending trillions on stimulus and private-sector bailouts, are believed to be eyeing the savings that would come from Pentagon cuts.
Rest of article about this $600 million dollar Deepwater failure at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_lcs_hearing_031009w/%2e
uhc comment: The LCS was projected to cost $200 million.
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