<\/p>\n
The Navy also warned CBO there\u2019s a 50% chance the first two ships would exceed their cost estimates<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n By Anthony Capaccio (Bloomberg) The first 10 vessels in the Navy\u2019s new frigate program may cost $12.3 billion, or 40% more than the service calculated, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a new sign of looming trouble for plans to expand the U.S. fleet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The assessment released late Tuesday projects the frigates will cost an average of $1.2 billion apiece in inflation-adjusted dollars in contrast to the Navy\u2019s estimate of $870 million each. It\u2019s an early setback for a ship billed as a more versatile and better-armed replacement for the troubled Littoral Combat Ship, a\u00a0$30B program that was truncated because of mechanical flaws, light armament and vulnerability to attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Navy is counting on an affordable frigate as a key component in its effort to meet President Donald Trump\u2019s goal of 355 deployable ships by 2035, up from about 299 today. Defense Secretary Mark Esper set out an even more ambitious goal last week of a 500-ship Navy by 2045<\/a> that would include unmanned vessels of unknown weight, capabilities and cost.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf the Navy\u2019s procurement cost estimates\u201d for the frigate \u201cprove accurate, the ship would be, by far, the least expensive surface combatant that the Navy has bought since 1970 \u2014 measured in cost-per-thousand tons of displacement,\u201d the budget office said. \u201cThat would apply to both the lead ship and the average cost of the first 10 ships.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n RELATED ARTICLE: China\u2019s Maritime One Belt Road Goes Digital As US Navy Spends Billions On Weapon Technology<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Its fiscal 2021 cost estimates for the second through 10th frigates \u201care at the very low end of the range\u201d established at the outset of a competition that was won by\u00a0Fincantieri SpA<\/a>\u00a0in April, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Navy also told CBO there\u2019s a 50% chance the first two ships would exceed their cost estimates and a 60% chance the third through 10th ships would as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Esper\u2019s vision calls for a fleet of 60 to 70 \u201csmall surface combatants\u201d that includes the frigates \u2014 which will be equipped with guided missiles \u2014 and Littoral Combat Ships, a quantity the Congressional Research Service said implies buying more than the 20 frigates currently planned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite the decision to cut short the Littoral Combat Ship program<\/a>, the Navy still has 35 on contract, with 19 delivered as of March. The LCS is built in two versions: One by Trieste, Italy-based Fincantieri in a joint venture with Lockheed Martin Corp. based in Bethesda, Maryland, and the other by Henderson, Australia-based\u00a0Austal Ltd.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CBO compared the frigate\u2019s estimated cost with ships of similar tonnage and examined arguments supporting the Navy\u2019s estimate, such as Fincantieri\u2019s long experience building small surface combatants vessels including, in this case, a design that\u2019s been in production for years for the French and Italian navies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also looked at elements that \u201csuggest the Navy\u2019s estimate is too low,\u201d such as the service\u2019s star-crossed history in which \u201ccosts of all surface combatants since 1970, as measured per-thousand-tons, were higher\u201d than initial estimates.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHistorically the Navy has almost always underestimated the cost of the lead ship, and a more expensive lead ship generally results in higher costs for the follow-on ships,\u201d the budget\u00a0analysts said<\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report cited the cost growth over initial estimates for the lead ship in other Navy programs, from 155% for one version of the Littoral Combat Ship, 84% on the San Antonio-class amphibious warfare vessel, 44% for the DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer and 25% on the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the costliest warship ever.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Compared with the design on which it\u2019s based, the frigate \u201cwill be more densely built and will have somewhat more complex weapon systems,\u201d CBO said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Navy also warned CBO there\u2019s a 50% chance the first two ships would exceed their cost estimates By Anthony Capaccio (Bloomberg) The first 10 vessels in the Navy\u2019s new frigate program may cost $12.3 billion, or 40% more than the service calculated, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a new sign of looming …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3685,2068,2640,5354,1070],"class_list":["post-19368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-affordable","tag-billion","tag-meet","tag-navys","tag-ship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/19369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}