Sunday, May 7, 2017

The U.S. Will Not Buy Any More Frigates Until They Know How To Build Them


Thomas Phippen, National Interest: U.S. Navy Delays Buying More Frigates Until They Know How To Build Them

The Navy will delay purchasing new frigates by at least a year to “ensure designs are mature” before spending billions on ships with untested capabilities, the service announced Wednesday.

The Navy intends to award the initial contract for the new frigates in fiscal year 2020, a year later than initially planned, Rear Admiral John Neagley, the littoral program executive officer, Rear Admiral Ron Boxall, the Navy’s surface warfare chief, said in a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on Seapower Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office recommended April 18 that Congress should delay spending $9 billion on the program for 12 new frigates until the Navy had better plan for how to design the ships.

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WNU Editor:
I take this as an admission that the US Navy has no confidence in their frigate program with now.

1 comment:

RussInSoCal said...

If the LCS is the frigate program, it should be scrapped. It's become the poster child for what's wrong with US Naval shipbuilding.

The Perry class ships were excellent. Manpower intensive, but very robust. As opposed to the fragile, over-complex over-automated LCS.