Why Slow Construction Of The Navy’s ‘Fabulously Successful’ DDG-51 Destroyer When Plans For A Successor Are Unclear?
The Navy shouldn't let go of what it knows works until whatever will follow is firmly in hand.
www.forbes.com
Judging from the recent action of congressional appropriators, the Large Surface Combatant isn’t going to progress much beyond the PowerPoint stage for some time to come.
So the prudent course would be to continue building a warship that we already know works across the full breadth of surface warship missions, and to build it at a pace that assures economies of scale (meaning a low price). In other words, there should be another multiyear contract for DDG-51 after 2022.
Maybe the Large Surface Combatant will turn out to be a compelling idea at some point in the distant future. But the Navy needs to hedge its bets, because the challenge China poses at sea is growing fast.
(More at link)