Does it look cool? Sure. But is it what America’s Navy really needs for the 21st century? Far from it. TIME magazine featured the Littoral Combat Ship in an article on October 5th which recaps the misguided and mismanaged history of the program and shows how foreign navies are building smarter and cheaper warships. At a cost of $700 million per ship, it is essentially just a speedboat with a few machine guns and rockets. Supporters of the program argue that it will be useful in hunting pirates and small Iranian watercraft, but there are plenty of other adequate and cheaper options for disposing of those threats. To put things in perspective, the new Zumwalt destroyer program costs roughly $3.3 billion per ship and is a fully functional stealth destroyer capable of surface warfare, anti-aircraft missions, and long range naval fire support with the advanced gun system (AGS).
http://nation.time.com/2012/10/05/the-navys-new-class-of-warships-big-bucks-little-bang/
Comments