Pentagon: Just Build Them Both

A sign that bureaucracy dominates the decision process is when an organization fails to make a decision. I'm starting to get the impression that the inability to make tough decisions regarding the Littoral Combat Ship has become one of its most obvious attributes. A ship still searching for a mission, still searching for a role, and still searching for a requirement. I see this as just one symptom of the larger problem.

The Pentagon's chief weapons buyer said he would prefer to award both Lockheed Martin Corp and General Dynamics Corp contracts for Littoral Combat Ships in fiscal 2009, but could opt for just one, if one company's price was too high.

"If one person decides to price themselves out of the market, then we can award the two '09 ships to a single vendor," Young told reporters on Tuesday.

"My preference would be to award to both vendors so I can keep both lines and competition alive," he added.

I have a feeling the final choice is going to be either buy both versions of the LCS, or buy neither version. I don't believe the Navy will actually choose one over the other. I don't have any specific reason other than I don't think the Navy is capable of making the difficult decisions required to change the shipbuilding plan.

I still can't figure out why the Navy wouldn't look at a FFG(X), it simply makes no sense at all not to put money in the design industry at a time when shipbuilding costs are going up, particularly when sinking money in R&D has been very effective reducing the cost of the Virginia class.

R&D investment has been much more effective at reducing costs than competition so far this decade, and yet the Navy is claiming the competitive nature of the DDG-1000 acquisition process will lower costs for the DDG-1000. I remain skeptical.