Navy Grapples With Shipbuilding

The Navy is attempting to control the costs of its future ship programs, all of which, save the Littoral Combat Ship, is exceeding a billion dollars each. According to this article, they seem to be throwing a cog in the works from the start:

Authorizers imposed caps for the Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine. Their conference agreement establishes cost caps on the subs at the current contract ceilings for several vessels: SSN-779, $2.33 billion; SSN-780, $2.47 billion; SSN-781, $2.55 billion; SSN-782, $2.67 billion; and SSN-783, $2.72 billion.
Significantly, authorizers agreed to require the Navy to begin a program to design and develop a next-generation submarine that would be a successor to the Virginia-class boats. The goal is to develop a sub with capabilities meeting or exceeding those of the Virginia-class, but at a lower cost.

Herein lies the problem. The same specs were given for the successor the the $1 billion Burke destroyer and we get the $3 billion DDX, as well as the $2 billion Seawolf sub, and we get the equally pricey Virginias.

How about a ship that is "good enough", cheaper and can be bought in large enough numbers to keep us from having a second-rate fleet.