Post by ferryfast admin on Jul 15, 2011 11:36:54 GMT -5
John McCain attacks Navy's LCS program after corrosion issue surfaces
Published: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 5:41 PM Updated: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 6:50 PM
Dan Murtaugh, Press-Register
blog.al.com/live/2011/07/mccain_attacks_navys_lcs_progr.html
MOBILE, Ala. -- The littoral combat ship program is coming under new criticism, this time from several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who raised concerns about corrosion problems and other issues.
The LCS program is vital to Mobile’s Austal USA, which is nearly doubling employment to 4,000 workers in order to fulfill a deal with the U.S. Navy to build up to 10 of the high-speed warships.
In a Tuesday letter to Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, John McCain, R-Ariz., and six other senators asked about recently disclosed corrosion on U.S.S. Independence, the first LCS built at Austal’s Mobile River shipyard.
The letter also posed pointed questions about the Pentagon’s cost estimates for the program, as well as requirements that the Navy waived in order to certify both the Independence and the U.S.S. Freedom, the other fully constructed LCS.
“The Littoral Combat Ship program has consistently failed in its promise to provide the Navy affordable combat capability on time and on budget,” McCain said in a statement.
* John McCain blasts Boeing over tanker cost overruns
The senators requested a response by July 25 to assist them in making decisions about Department of Defense funding requests.
Austal officials Thursday referred inquiries about the letter to the Navy.
The Navy then directed the media questions to the Defense Department. Officials there could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Neither the office of Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, nor Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, commented on the letter.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to review the LCS program and possibly rebid the contracts in light of the corrosion on Independence and a cracked hull on Freedom, which was built by Lockheed Martin.
Mabus quickly responded to that letter, saying he was confident that the problems were taken care of and that the program was on a path to success.
McCain’s letter was also signed by Jim Webb, D-Va.; Scott Brown, R-Mass.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Tom Coburn, R-Okla. All but Coburn are on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee.
The Navy disclosed corrosion issues on the Independence last month. At the time, the Navy said that galvanic corrosion was causing holes to form in the aluminum hull near its steel water jets.
The service plans to install a cathodic protection system on Independence and the under-construction Coronado as a permanent solution.
Both ships are being built at Austal, but the prime contractor is General Dynamics.
Austal will be prime contractor on the 10-ship deal the Navy announced in December, and the protection system is already included in that design, a Navy spokesman has said.
The senators sending the Tuesday letter wanted to know the root cause of the corrosion, how extensive it was, why the cathodic protection system wasn’t included in the first place, and how much it will cost to install, among other things.
The letter also referenced a story from The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia that quoted Austal Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bellamy saying that any galvanic corrosion on the ship was caused by operational maintenance. The senators asked how the Navy plans to address such maintenance issues.
The letter also raised questions about the program’s certification, which Congress requires in order to increase taxpayer investment.
In April, the Pentagon allowed the Navy to move the LCS program into what is known as “Milestone B,” the engineering, manufacturing and development stage.
But in order to do so, it waived requirements that it said could not be certified at the time. The senators asked the Pentagon for more information about why the requirements were waived, and when it planned to seek the certifications.
The letter also asked why the Pentagon continues to use the Navy’s estimates for the cost of the ships instead of that from the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, which has said the Navy’s estimates are not achievable.
McCain has long been a critic of the LCS program. When he was running for president in 2008, he mentioned the program on a nationally televised debate as an example of military costs spinning out of control.
(Press-Register Capital Bureau Reporter George Altman contributed to this report.)
Published: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 5:41 PM Updated: Thursday, July 14, 2011, 6:50 PM
Dan Murtaugh, Press-Register
blog.al.com/live/2011/07/mccain_attacks_navys_lcs_progr.html
MOBILE, Ala. -- The littoral combat ship program is coming under new criticism, this time from several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who raised concerns about corrosion problems and other issues.
The LCS program is vital to Mobile’s Austal USA, which is nearly doubling employment to 4,000 workers in order to fulfill a deal with the U.S. Navy to build up to 10 of the high-speed warships.
In a Tuesday letter to Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, John McCain, R-Ariz., and six other senators asked about recently disclosed corrosion on U.S.S. Independence, the first LCS built at Austal’s Mobile River shipyard.
The letter also posed pointed questions about the Pentagon’s cost estimates for the program, as well as requirements that the Navy waived in order to certify both the Independence and the U.S.S. Freedom, the other fully constructed LCS.
“The Littoral Combat Ship program has consistently failed in its promise to provide the Navy affordable combat capability on time and on budget,” McCain said in a statement.
* John McCain blasts Boeing over tanker cost overruns
The senators requested a response by July 25 to assist them in making decisions about Department of Defense funding requests.
Austal officials Thursday referred inquiries about the letter to the Navy.
The Navy then directed the media questions to the Defense Department. Officials there could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Neither the office of Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, nor Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, commented on the letter.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to review the LCS program and possibly rebid the contracts in light of the corrosion on Independence and a cracked hull on Freedom, which was built by Lockheed Martin.
Mabus quickly responded to that letter, saying he was confident that the problems were taken care of and that the program was on a path to success.
McCain’s letter was also signed by Jim Webb, D-Va.; Scott Brown, R-Mass.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Tom Coburn, R-Okla. All but Coburn are on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee.
The Navy disclosed corrosion issues on the Independence last month. At the time, the Navy said that galvanic corrosion was causing holes to form in the aluminum hull near its steel water jets.
The service plans to install a cathodic protection system on Independence and the under-construction Coronado as a permanent solution.
Both ships are being built at Austal, but the prime contractor is General Dynamics.
Austal will be prime contractor on the 10-ship deal the Navy announced in December, and the protection system is already included in that design, a Navy spokesman has said.
The senators sending the Tuesday letter wanted to know the root cause of the corrosion, how extensive it was, why the cathodic protection system wasn’t included in the first place, and how much it will cost to install, among other things.
The letter also referenced a story from The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia that quoted Austal Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bellamy saying that any galvanic corrosion on the ship was caused by operational maintenance. The senators asked how the Navy plans to address such maintenance issues.
The letter also raised questions about the program’s certification, which Congress requires in order to increase taxpayer investment.
In April, the Pentagon allowed the Navy to move the LCS program into what is known as “Milestone B,” the engineering, manufacturing and development stage.
But in order to do so, it waived requirements that it said could not be certified at the time. The senators asked the Pentagon for more information about why the requirements were waived, and when it planned to seek the certifications.
The letter also asked why the Pentagon continues to use the Navy’s estimates for the cost of the ships instead of that from the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, which has said the Navy’s estimates are not achievable.
McCain has long been a critic of the LCS program. When he was running for president in 2008, he mentioned the program on a nationally televised debate as an example of military costs spinning out of control.
(Press-Register Capital Bureau Reporter George Altman contributed to this report.)