LCS Cost Rises

The Navy still struggles to mean what it says on procurement costs. From Navy Times:


The cost of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships will jump as much as 44 percent, a revelation that casts new doubts on the service’s ability to estimate its shipbuilding expenses.
The ships were to have cost about $220 million apiece, but Navy figures released Feb. 27 show the price tag rising to $316 million in 2008, leading to an average of $307 million for each of the planned 55 ships in the class. The figures were revealed in a Feb. 6 “budget item justification sheet” to accompany the 2007 defense budget request to Congress.

Here's where the added costs come from:

• Tests and trials
• Logistics support
• Management support
• Engineering to speed construction and improving technology on future ships
• Post-delivery outfitting costs
• New technology
• Increases in the costs of steel and aluminum
• Improving combat survivability.

Maybe they should have stuck with the original protoypes, such as the Joint Venture catamarans, or the smaller Sea fighter, which run about $50 million each.