Top Navy acquisition official Etter resigns

[unhappycamper]

Top Navy acquisition official Etter resigns
By Christopher P. Cavas - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 9, 2007 17:17:34 EDT

Delores Etter, the Navy’s senior acquisition official, submitted her resignation Oct. 5 after a year of turmoil and embarrassment over cost growth in one of the service’s most prominent shipbuilding programs.

“I have held the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition for almost two years,” Etter, 63, said in a statement. “We have accomplished a great deal in that time, but after deliberating with my family and staff, I have decided to resign from my position. This decision allows me to return to my teaching post at the United States Naval Academy in time for the spring academic semester there.”

Etter, a member of the electrical engineering faculty at the Naval Academy, was sworn into the RD&A position in November 2005. She followed a high-powered predecessor, John Young, who has been nominated as the Pentagon’s top acquisition executive.

Etter, as expected, was heavily interested in the research portion of her portfolio, but it was in the acquisition arena that she faced her severest challenges. In early January she revealed that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program was experiencing severe cost overruns. The first LCS, under construction by Lockheed Martin, was far over its touted $220 million building price. The service has yet to issue a revised cost for the ship — which is nearly a year behind schedule — but Navy officials admit the price is approaching $400 million and may go higher. The competing General Dynamics LCS design also is expected to be over budget.

The LCS program, intended to buy a total of 55 ships that would constitute about one-sixth of the entire fleet, subsequently went into crashback mode. Before the cost growth was revealed, four LCS ships were under contract and the service had funding authorization to order two more. Since then, one of the contracted ships has been canceled, funds for two ships in 2007 are being used to pay for program cost overruns, future plans are up in the air, and Congress has expressed a deep distrust of the Navy’s ability to manage the program and accurately estimate all its shipbuilding costs.

Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/defense_etterresigns_071009/



uhc comment: I had posted about the LCS program on 9.27 --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x4428

The previous article was about General Dynamics and this one mentions Lockheed Martin.

How many firms are building this thing?