The Pentagon is buying the wrong ship, and it’s costing taxpayers billions

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 90%. (I'm a bot)


Currently the Navy plans to swap out Cyclones for much larger and costlier Littoral Combat Ships, with hulls that draw twice as deeply as the patrol boats.

The new Littoral Combat Ships - the Navy is buying as many as 52 in coming years - are products of a late-1990s military craze for high-tech, multi-mission "Platforms." That is, ships, planes and ground vehicles that can switch from one task to another with the press of a button.

If the Navy bought 10 fewer Littoral ships and acquired 10 new patrol boats for $70 million apiece instead, it would represent a net savings of more than $3 billion in ship construction costs while also boosting national security.


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