Not Your Father's Warships

Meaning the littoral combat ship (LCS) was built cheaper and faster for a new era of warfare. This is from the Houston Chronicle:

The new warship was conceived six years ago and fast-tracked after the USS Cole bombing and the Sept. 11 attacks. The first of the new ships will be delivered in roughly half the 10 to 15 years it takes under traditional shipbuilding programs...Instead of lengthy research and development, the Navy encouraged contractors to utilize off-the-shelf technologies from the private sector, much like the Army did as it rushed its Stryker vehicles into service in urban warfare in Iraq.

If every new American weapon was so conceived and married to the new "smart" technology, we would have a smaller and more lethal military.