The littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) conducts flight deck certification with an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Sea Knights of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nathan Laird)Littoral Combat Ships: Analysts Unable To Compare Fuel Costs -- Al.com
WASHINGTON -- In a newly released review, congressional budget analysts said they were unable to directly compare fuel costs for the two versions of the littoral combat ship because of a lack of data.
The review, requested by members of the Alabama congressional delegation, examines fuel expenses only for the first ship built by a team led by Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and commissioned in November 2008.
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My Comment: At hundreds of millions per copy .... everyone wants a piece of this action.
AL.com missed the point of that CBO report. Basically what it determined is that the fuel expense of LCS-1, even at moderately higher speeds, was not high enough even for the ship's lifetime to offset the higher construction cost of LCS-2 (+$100 million more than LCS-1) to justify choosing LCS-2 over LCS-1 regardless of what LCS-2's average fuel expenses will be. That CBO report was significant in that it was the Alabama Senators who asked for it, and it showed that LCS-1's lifetime costs would likely be less than LCS-2's even considering fuel expense. For anybody who has been objectively watching this, it should be clear the competition is over. LCS-1 wins. Only poor losers used to having their way with governments would think they'd accomplish anything by appealing to the GAO. That's a waste of time. The GAO won't change what the contractor spent too much money building.
ReplyDeleteBTW, here's the link to the CBO report/letter that Al.com left out:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/114xx/doc11431/04-28-SessionsLetter.pdf
Thank you Brad for your input. it is appreciated.
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