Navy to Assert Control Over Shipbuilding

Stung by cost overruns, the Navy is looking to return to a past when it controlled the shipbuilding process from beginning to end.

The change follows a period when the Navy told shipyards what it wanted the ships to do and then let them deliver rather than getting mired in design details.

But that approach failed to control costs in construction of the speedy Littoral Combat Ship for close-to-shore operations and in the design of the stealthy DDG-1000 destroyer, the successor to the mainstay Arleigh Burke destroyers built at Bath Iron Works and at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi.

The growing cost of warships in recent years has led the Navy to reduce its orders, and the resulting loss of economies of scale has driven costs of individual warships even higher. That spiral has left everyone unhappy, including the Navy, members of Congress, defense contractors — and shipbuilders who fear for their jobs.

7 NATO warships arrive in Odessa seaport for exercises

Seven NATO warships dropped anchors at the western naval base of Ukraine near Odessa on Sunday. They are taking part in the Sea Breeze 2007 international exercises, which start on Monday, a source at the drill press service told Itar-Tass.

The exercises will take place on July 9-22 under NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program. This is the sixth drill of the kind. Sea Breeze will involve 2,500 servicemen from 13 NATO member and candidate countries, 22 warships, five planes and seven helicopters.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 and is filed under Acquisition Policy, Maritime Strategy News, NATO, Navy, Ukraine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.