re: #91 Targetpractice

Part of the problem was that the LCS project was supposed to settle upon a single design and go with that, but the Navy (or, rather their Congressional allies) argued that building both designs would be “good” because it would keep the respective shipyards working. So it doesn’t surprise me in the least that they’re arguing to continue production while the FFG(X) program drags along to designing a replacement.

I think the failure to down-select, as planned, to one class of ship originally wasn’t about keeping shipyards working. Decision to build prototypes of both ships to trail against each other (not typically done with big ass warships) was due to seeing the potential of the trimaran Independence- class, but being risk averse.
If someone had had the gnads to choose one design before building, which is normal, the program would be years ahead now.
Also, the programs biggest problems has been developing the “mission modules”.
The typical problem with US arms procurement, striving for the “leap ahead” technology.