CBO Report Comment

Galrahn's post below on Eric Labs' new CBO report adds Labs' work to my growing "to read" list. I did scan G's post and the exec summary, so I figure I have enough to think out loud a bit.

I'm sure Eric Labs goes into the money on these alternatives as skillfully and honestly as anyone in DC can. In my opinion, Labs has a better ability to cost shipbuilding programs than anyone in the Navy or industry. So I won't talk about money.

I will talk a little about the "requirement". Because if you tee this discussion up along the lines it appears Labs is taking it, you bang up against a striking logic brick wall, to wit:

The NSC for the Navy question has been laid before the Navy in great detail. Northrop Grumman's best marketing folks have briefed everyone of importance in the Navy about the extensibility of NSC. The problem for NSC has always been its "threat" to LCS. The Navy has a great deal riding on LCS, so when the discussion of NSC would come up, senior officers would always cite NSC's inability to "meet the requirement" (of LCS). Having never actually laid eyes on the LCS requirement, I could never judge the veracity of this view. But knowing what I know about the stated requirement for LCS, one could surmise that NSC's draft was too deep and it was too slow, among other things.

The problem with the Navy's view here isn't that NSC can't meet the LCS requirement--I'm willing to believe that. The real problem is that LCS doesn't meet the requirements for low-end presence that the Maritime Strategy surely suggests. It is too expensive to build in numbers, and it has insufficient range/endurance. The Navy made much ado about operations on the low-end, capacity building, HA/DR, maritime security, etc--but they do not have a platform or platforms that adequately address these aspirations. THIS is where the NSC has relevance to the Navy.

Some in the Navy talk about the light armament of the NSC as a detriment to independent operations--tell that to the folks who will command them for the Coast Guard. Let's face it; if we found ourselves at war with another maritime power, the fact that the ship is white isn't going to matter much.

This is probably far too many words about a report I haven't read yet--but I'm excited to be a part of the ID team, and I thought I'd get some thoughts out on day 1.