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Archives by date > 2008 > February > 11th

Littoral Combat Ship Costs, Issues Rising Again

Feb 11, 2008 19:53 UTC

LCS-1

LCS-1, Pre-launch

Back on July 24/07, in a statement to Congress, the Congressional Budget Office had this to say [PDF] about the Littoral Combat Ship program:

“The first FFG-7, including its combat systems, cost a total of about $650 million (in 2008 dollars) to build, or about $235 million per thousand tons. Applying that per-ton estimate to the LCS program suggests that the lead ships would cost about $575 million apiece, including the cost of one mission module (to make them comparable to the FFG-7)… Navy has not publicly released an estimate for the LCS program that incorporates the most recent cost growth… CBO estimates that with that growth included, the first two LCSs would cost about $630 million each, excluding mission modules but including outfitting, postdelivery, and various nonrecurring costs… Excluding mission modules, the 55 LCSs in the Navy’s plan would cost an average of $450 million each, CBO estimates.”

“Cost Growth Leads to Stop-Work on Team Lockheed LCS-3 Construction (updated)” and “US Navy Sinks LCS-4 Construction” chronicled the crash of the original program’s acquisition plan, and cancellation of both Flight 0 ships. Both contractor teams refused to commit to a new contract model that would let the Navy continue to force as many design changes as they liked, while holding contractor fees fixed and leaving the contractor financially responsible for cost overruns. Now Defense News reports that Navy FY 2009 budget documents released on Feb 4/08 give cost figures for the first 2 LCS ships: Team Lockheed’s LCS 1 Freedom, and the Austal/GD team’s trimaran LCS 2 Independence. Care to guess?

Continue Reading… »

CH-47F: What’s a “Large” Contract, in Dollars?

Feb 11, 2008 08:54 UTC

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CH-47F NTC Ft Irwin

CH-47F, Ft. Irwin

On February 1/08, the Pentagon’s DefenseLINK announced “a large firm-fixed price contract [for 10] CH-47F new build production helicopters.” This new variant of the CH-47 Chinook incorporates a slew of improvements, and was declared combat-ready in August 2007. Work will be performed in Philadelphia, PA and is expected to be complete by Dec 31/12. One bid was solicited on Dec 31/03, and 1 bid was received by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command in Redstone Arsenal, AL (W58RGZ-04-C-0012).

Given that the Pentagon is required by law to state dollar amounts for awards over $5 million, however, the breaking of those rules for this contract was deeply puzzling. Fortunately, the US Army has now informed DID that this is a $280.5 million contract; DefenseLINK should post the amount soon. A Feb 27/08 Boeing release gives the same dollar figure, but notes 11 helicopters. DID has also updated our CH-47F FOCUS article.

Originally posted on Feb 5/08.

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