Thanks to Lynn Hall for the photo. That’s the U.S. Navy littoral combat ship USS Omaha (LCS 12), seen in Elliott Bay this afternoon. It’s been undergoing maintenance work at Vigor‘s Harbor Island shipyard, which announced a $110 million contract in 2021 to work on the Omaha and another littoral combat ship, USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10).
Sadly all that work and expense is due to poor original design and quality control, now they just throw more money at them which is good for local businesses at least.
So, you’re saying that this work is to repair a recurring problem? Perhaps you could explain what that problem is, and why the Navy is throwing funds @ it. Doubtful you can.
Well, the Navy keeps trying to retire these relatively new ships. They’ve had no shortage of problems and questions about what mission they serve, all well publicized and debated in the Navy rags. Congress keeps them afloat, however, so that’s that. I have to agree with the sentiment that at least $110 million went to a local business.
This article pretty well sums up the situation. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-decommission-new-littoral-combat-ships/
To be clear – that story is primarily about the OTHER class of LCS’s, not the class that includes the Gabrielle Giffords and Omaha.
Their class of LCS’s does have its own problem, though, as linked toward the bottom of the story about the other class (“variant”):
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/the-navys-independence-class-littoral-combat-ships-are-cracking
Well, that’s the way it is. Everything needs maintenance. We often complain about our cars breaking down due to original design. And we throw more money at them for awhile until deemed a lost cause. They retire ships when they get to that point too.
By “us” do you mean the taxpayers that get stuck with the bill?
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