Building a world class Navy

I know we are all encouraged at THAT phrase – after all, the US Navy has dominated the seven seas for what, almost eighty years? Yeah, right…they did. Still want to claim the title?

Not to puke on swabbies, officers, whatever…they are some of the best and not only do they do a great job with what they have to work with, they have easily had the best full length ads ever filmed. Battleship, That Shall Which Not Be Named I and II… killer ads there, fellas. It’s the ship builders that are letting you down, and they ain’t your fault.

Let’s talk about the Landing Ship Medium. I know, you thought I was going to pick on the Littoral Combat ships (again) but that isn’t the low-hanging fruit today.

The Congressional Budget Office expects the Landing Ship Medium program to cost billions of dollars more than the U.S. Navy previously estimated, though the organization noted that ongoing questions about the ship’s role create uncertainty on the final design and cost.

The office estimated an 18-ship LSM program would cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars, or $340 million to $430 million per ship. This is three times more than the Navy’s comparable estimate of $2.6 billion total, or $150 million per ship.

For example, the Marine Corps originally proposed LSM in its Force Design 2030 modernization plan in spring 2020, calling for a vessel that would be built to commercial standards to keep costs low and to help it blend in with commercial shipping.

The Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, however, have pushed for higher standards for safety and survivability, leading to a back-and-forth over design, cost and quantity. DefenseNews

Basically the Marines want a commercial quality ship, the Navy seems to think anything that would go into a conflict has to be built to a higher standard.  I’m not sure they can build a cruise-missile proof ship –  maybe the Marines have a point? Not sure armor would be the answers – more watertight compartments? Someone of the aquatic persuasion please enlighten us.

So essentially we have a stalled program with no clear objective. Gotta say, nowadays that’s… wait for it…ALL of them. We need something different.

Moving on – Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro visited Korea recently and was gobsmacked at their shipyards.

“When my team and I went to South Korea, we were floored at the level of digitization and real-time monitoring of shipbuilding progress, with readily available information down to individual pieces of stock materials,” Del Toro said.

“Their top executives could tell us to the day when ships would be delivered,” he said. That’s a stark difference from the US, which is facing problems with its shipbuilding capacity, labor availability, and resources.

Nowadays ISO9000 standards are so ubiquitous almost everyone adheres to them – they may only tell you that you are building crap but at least you have firm data on how bad the crap is and where your problems lie. Ginormous defense contractors can’t do that?

That month (February ’24 – ed.), Maj. Jeffrey L. Seavy, a retired US Marine Corps officer, wrote for the US Naval Institute that China had roughly 47% of the global market on shipbuilding, the most of any country, with South Korea coming in second at about 29% and Japan in third at about 17%. He said the US had “a relative insignificant capacity at 0.13%,” referencing numbers from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

.13%. Think about that. Between a sixth and a seventh of 1/100th world’s production. Seriously?

The Navy secretary’s comments came on the heels of an internal review that discovered that most of the Navy’s top programs, including high-priority submarines, a first-in-class guided-missile frigate, and the third Ford-class aircraft carrier, were severely delayed by years, fueling worries from US officials about the ability to maintain the country’s pace against great power rivals.  Business Insider

Sounds like navally speaking we are running a Military Industrial Thrift Shop. And we’re not very good at it.

I klnow you recognize the ship above, the USS Boxer which has been in refit seemingly longer than most of y’all been alive, and has the sea route back to port NAMED after it.

“USS Boxer is returning to San Diego to undergo additional maintenance in support of its deployment in the Indo-Pacific region,” Lt. Cmdr. Jesus Uranga, a spokesperson for the Navy’s 3rd Fleet in the Pacific, told Military.com in an email.  Defense News

Ten whole days…sigh.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Big Navy