Rapid Fire July 26, 2012 – CBO to DoN: Get Real

Spending above the waterline The CBO(Congressional Budget Office) analyzed [PDF] the latest long-term shipbuilding plans of the US Navy and thinks that despite lowering the number of ships they intend to procure, the DoN is significantly underestimating how much their plan will cost. CBO’s estimate of $20 billion/year for new-ship construction is about 40% above the historical average funding, with peaks way above average in the 2023-2032 decade (even by the Navy’s own costing). CBO for instance challenges the Navy’s estimate that it will be able to buy the next-gen LCS under much better terms than the current generation, and likewise doesn’t buy that a successor to DDG-51 Flight III ships would deliver more technology for the same price. The Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) do not seem to agree either on how much over initial estimates the B61 life extension (LEP) is going to cost, confirming earlier reports that lacked a named source. Defense Industry Daily will wrap up collecting data for our 2012 contractor performance survey very soon: please contribute your knowledge to help us rank prime contractors. US Navy Secretary Mabus posted a thin-skinned rebuttal to the critics […]